Harrison Brown

Harrison Brown

Template:TOCnestleft Harrison Brown (born Sept. 26, 1917 in Sheridan, Wyoming, died Dec. 8, 1986) was the son of Agatha Scott and Harrison Brown Sr.. He was an outspoken eugenicist and member of the International Eugenics Society who made recommendations for "sterilizing the feeble-minded" and other "unfit" substandard humans whom he thought should be "pruned from society." He delighted in telling audiences that he was a "Malthusian". He was married first to Rudd Owen and then to Theresa Tellez Brown.

Personal Life

At the age of ten, Harrison Brown's father died and he and his mother moved to San Francisco. Here he completed primary and secondary school and then went on to receive his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938.

Of his personality, close friend John Holdren wrote in a tribute of Brown's life published in March 1987,

"Harrison Brown was a warm and witty man, cheerful - always a twinkle in his eye - and surprisingly modest."

Association of Oak Ridge Scientists

Harrison Brown was one of the most active of the founding members of the Association of Oak Ridge Scientists which was formed in Fall 1945 for the purpose of promoting education and discussion about the implications of nuclear weapons. He was a member of the organization's first executive committee, and he used the royalties from Must Destruction Be Our Destiny? to support its work. In October 1945 the Association joined with three sister organizations to form the Federation of Atomic Scientists. Brown initially served as the Federation's first Vice-Chairman before resigning and focusing his attention on a merger between the Association and the Federation of American Scientists in March 1946.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Brown was active in the formative stages of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was one of the most enduring creations of the atomic scientist's movement for arms control. When an editorial board first appeared on the masthead of the bulletin in June 1947, it listed Harrison Brown, Clyde Hutchinson and Edward Teller. As at October, 1986, Brown served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin.

Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists

In Summer 1947, Leo Szilard persuaded Brown to become the executive vice-president of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists.

The following were members of the Committee:

• Albert Einstein - president
• Harrison Brown - executive vice-president
• Hans Bethe
• Linus Pauling
• Harold Urey
• Victor Weisskopf

The Committee desired from the outset to realize their idea of having an international conference of scientists - including Soviet scientists - to discuss the dangers of nuclear weaponry. This conference would eventually be known as the Pugwash Conference. Harrison Brown was delegated to pursue this possibility with Andrei Gromyko who was then the deputy foreign minister, and Soviet representative on the UN Security Council. Brown and Gromyko met twice to discuss the proposition. However the Soviets were not yet ready for such collaboration and it was not until July 1957 that the first conference took place. It was held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Brown was invited to this first conference, however was unable to attend. He did attend the third Pugwash Conference in 1958, and sixteen subsequently.

Pugwash Organizing Committee

The Pugwash Organizing Committee formed out of the conference sub-committee within the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. Brown was a member of the international Pugwash Organizing Committee from 1959 to 1963, and was a long-time mainstay of the U.S. Pugwash Committee as well.

National Academy of Sciences

Brown was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1955 at the unusually early age of 37 and served as the foreign secretary of the Academy from 1962 - 1974.

Committee on Scholarly Communication

In 1966 Brown collaborated in the formation of the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China which laid the foundation for scientific bilateral agreements and university programs.

Population Science

In 1967, following his appointment as professor of science and government at Caltech, Brown organized the Caltech Population Program in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences.

"The Challenge of Man's Future"

"The Challenge of Man's Future" is the book Harrison Brown is best know for. Much of this book surveys in great detail the "challenges" in our future, all of which serves as a set-up for the solution, which is to stop growth and limit the population.

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

In 1972 Brown played a key role in the founding of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The Institute was formed with participation by academics of science from the Untied States, the Soviet Union and 10 nations from both East and West. Its focus is on cooperative research on such large-scale "systems" problems as energy, water, economic and ecosystem modeling, and regional planning. In the years of negotiation and organization leading to IIASA's creation, Brown worked particularly closely with Soviet Academician Jerman Gvishiani, who became chairman of the IIASA Council, and with National Academy of Sciences president Philip Handler. Brown became a member of IIASA's first executive committee and chairman of the finance committee.

International Council of Scientific Unions

Brown was called upon to serve in 1974 - 1976 as president of the International council of Scientific Unions. The Council was a nongovernmental federation that linked the national academics in approximately 60 countries, plus international scientific unions in 17 fields.

United World Federalists

Brown has been a national board member of the leftist-internationalist United World Federalists.

National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy

Brown has been a sponsor of the leftist-pacifist National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.

Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions

Brown has been a consultant and member of the board of directors of the socialist-oriented Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. In 1960, with James Real, Brown authored a pamphlet entitled Community of Fear for the Center. The foreward was provided by Reinhold Niebuhr, one of America's all-time champion Communist-fronters. The pamphlet is a classical example of scare-mongering about thermonuclear war as a means of promoting accomodation treaties with the Soviet Union. While it was briefly conceded that it was conceivable that military officials in the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. might bring about a coup and order an attack, the authors envisioned the U.S. as being much more vulnerable to such a coup by their military hotheads. An example of the alarmist nature of the pamphlet follows:

"In addition to [accidental onset of war], it is possible that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. can become involved in a war which neither nation wants as a result of the catalytic action of a third nation. For example, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco might suddenly be destroyed by thermonuclear weapons launched from submarines. The submarines themselves might not be identifiable, but we might with good reason suspect them to be from the Soviet Union. Under the circumstances we might launch a devastating attack upon that country, not realizing that a third country (China? Japan? Argentina?), rather than the Soviet Union had attacked us."

Resource Systems Institute

In 1977 Brown became the founding director of the newly established Resource Systems Institute at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. The East-West Center was chartered by the U.S. House of Congress to conduct research, training, and cooperative programs focused on the problems of the Asia-Pacific region.

Support for Andrei Sakharov

Brown was a quiet but effective supporter of Andrei Sakharov.

Death

Brown at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1983

Confined to a wheelchair as the result of a progressive paralysis caused by irradiation of his spine in therapy following an earlier bout with lung cancer, Brown retired from the East-West Center, moving to Albuquerque with his wife. Not ready to retire, he accepted the responsibilities of editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Positions

• 1941 and 1942: Worked as a chemistry instructor at John Hopkins University
• 1942 and 1943: Worked as a research associate on a plutonium project at the University of Chicago
• 1943 - 1946: Worked as the assistant diretor of chemistry at the Clinton Laboratories in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
• 1946 - 1951: as a faculty member in the University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies as an assistant professor until 1948, and then as an associate professor
• Summer 1947: Leo Szilard persuaded Brown to become the executive vice-president of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists
• 1951: Became professor of geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology
• 1955 - 1974 Elected to the National Academy of Sciences at the unusually early age of 37
• 1967: Made professor of science and government at Caltech, while remaining as a professor in geochemistry
• 1972: Served on the IIASA's first executive committee and was chairman of the finance committee
• 1974 - 1976: Served as president of the International council of Scientific Unions
• 1977 - 1983: Became the founding director of the newly established Resource Systems Institute

Colleagues

Harrison has worked with the following people:

• Clair Patterson, Edward Goldberg, George Tilton, Mark Inghram - colleagues and students at the University of Chicago in 1946
• Theresa Tellez, Victor Rabinowitch, Wilton Dillon, Murray Todd - staffers at the Office of the Foreign Secretary at the National Academy of Sciences, between 1962 and 1974
• Kirk Smith, Richard Sheldon, John Bardach, Fereidun Fesharaki, Corazon Siddayo - Brown's team at the Resource Systems Institute

Awards

• 1952: Received the American Chemical Society's prestigious Award in Pure Chemistry

Publications

Brown authored 12 books including:

• Must Destruction Be Our Destiny? (1946)
• The Challenge of Man's Future, 1954. Republished in 1984.
• The Next Hundred Years, with James Bonner and John Weir, 1957
• China Among the Nations of the Pacific, edited, 1982
• The Cassiopeia Affair (1968), with Chloe Zerwick, a novel about a message from the stars

Brown was also editor-at-large of the Saturday Review.

References

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