William Fuller Brown, Jr.
| William Fuller Brown, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 21, 1904 Lyon Mountain, New York |
| Died | 1983 (aged 78–79) St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Residence | United States |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | magnetism |
| Institutions | Princeton University, Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Sun Oil Company, 3M Company, University of Minnesota |
| Alma mater | Cornell University, Columbia University |
| Thesis | The variation of the internal friction and elastic constants with magnetization in iron (1937) |
| Doctoral advisor | Shirley Leon Quimby |
| Known for | Micromagnetics |
| Influenced | Amikam Aharoni |
| Notable awards | Fulbright scholar, IEEE Fellow, Meritorious Civilian Service Award |
William Fuller Brown, Jr. (21 October 1904–1983) was an American physicist who developed the theory of micromagnetics, a continuum theory of ferromagnetism that has had numerous applications in physics and engineering. He published three books: Magnetostatic Principles in Ferromagnetism,Micromagnetics, and Magnetoelastic Interactions.
William Fuller Brown, Jr. was born in Lyon Mountain, New York on September 21, 1904 to William Fuller Brown and Marie E. Williams. An early interest in electromagnetism was stimulated by a toy motor but "destimulated" by high school and college physics courses. He graduated from Cornell University with a BA in English in 1925 and began teaching at Carolina Academy, a private high school in Raleigh, North Carolina. This "restimulated" his interest in physics.
In 1927, Brown enrolled in Columbia University. With S. L. Quimby as his doctoral advisor, he wrote a dissertation on the effect of magnetization on the elastic properties of iron. On August 17, 1936 he was married to Shannon Johnson. He received his PhD in physics in 1937.
In 1938 Brown was appointed assistant professor of physics at Princeton University. It was during this period that he developed micromagnetics. In 1941, he went to the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory, where he headed a team that was working on methods to protect ships against magnetic mines. He developed novel methods for degaussing ships and instrumentation for measuring magnetic fields and the magnetic properties of steels. For his work he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award by the U.S. Navy.
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