Karl Leslie Brown, 1925-2002

Professor Emeritus of Applied Research

Professional and Biographical Information

During its sessions ... at Brookhaven, the U.S. Particle Accelerator School awarded Karl Brown of the Research Division its 1989 Prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics and Technology. Consisting of a check and a plaque, the prize was presented to him at a banquet on August 3. He was honored by his colleagues in the accelerator physics community for his "insights into particle beam transport and for introducing formalisms in use throughout the world." Brown's deep involvement with accelerator physics, which began at Stanford in the late 1940s, ... closely paralleled the development of linear accelerators and colliders ever since. In 1949, he wrote a master's thesis on klystron design, with Marvin Chodorow as his advisor; four years later he finished his Ph.D. on electron scattering under Pief Panofsky. After that he worked at HEPL as a Research Associate, becoming one of the principal figures involved in the design of a two-mile accelerator then known as "Project M," and joined SLAC at its inception. He was made Adjunct Professor in 1974 and named Professor (Applied Research) in 1982. Karl was the first to apply matrix methods to solve problems in the transport of charged particle beams through a system of magnets. A computer program based on these methods, TRANSPORT, has been used worldwide in the design and analysis of particle beams and magnetic spectrometers. This program and the methods behind it have become basic tools of the trade for both accelerator and high energy physics; it is difficult to imagine how these disciplines could have evolved to their present status without them.     (SLAC Beam Line, September 1989, page 19)

• Karl Brown, pioneer of linear accelerators, dies at 76 by Dawn Levy, Stanford Report, September 11, 2002.
• Karl L. Brown -- physics pioneer, by David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor, September 12, 2002.
• Karl Leslie Brown, Wolfgang Panofsky. Physics Today 56, 3,99 (2003)
• Memorial Resolution: Karl Brown (1925-2002) Stanford Report, February 26, 2003.
• Karl L. Brown obituary and CV, 2002

Publications

• Brown, Karl L. A First- and Second-Order matrix Theory for the Design of Beam Transport Systems and Charged particle Spectrometers. SLAC report-75, June 1982.
• Brown, Karl L., and Sam K. Howry. TRANSPORT/360: A Computer Program for Designing Charged Particle Beam Transport Systems. SLAC Report No. 91, July 1970.
• For further technical publications by Karl L. Brown, search iNSpire HEP; OA.mg (open access); and GoogleScholar.

Archival Materials

Karl L. Brown papers held by the SLAC Archives, History & Records Office are currently being processed, and are not yet open for research. SLAC staff may access descriptions of his papers by clicking this link and entering his last name, first name in the search box at the upper right on that page.  

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