James E. Brau

James E. Brau
Born
James Edward Brau

1946 (age 79–80)
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsHigh energy particles and fields
Workplaces
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  • University of Tennessee
  • University of Oregon
ThesisInclusive and Semi-inclusive Charge Structure in Pion-Proton Multiparticle Production Reactions at 150 GeV/c
Richard K. Yamamoto

James E. Brau (born 1946) is an American physicist at the University of Oregon (UO) who has conducted research on elementary particles and fields. He founded the Oregon experimental high energy physics group in 1988 and served as director of the UO Center for High Energy Physics from 1997 to 2016. In 2006 he was appointed the Philip H. Knight Professor of Natural Science, an endowed professorship.

Prior to joining the Oregon faculty, he served in the Air Force and held positions at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the University of Tennessee. He is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and also the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Personal life and education

James Edward Brau, son of James Ernest Brau and Rose (née Nist) Brau, was born in 1946 in Tacoma, Washington.[1][2] He married Mary Williams in 1969. They have two adult sons (Benjamin and Daniel) and four grandchildren (Alex, Judson, Sarah, and Beckett).[3]

Following his junior year at Lincoln High School, Brau participated in 1964 NSF-sponsored summer program at the University of Puget Sound, supervised by Prof. Z.F. Daneš, taking detailed gravitometer measurements of the Puget Sound area. He prepared a "Gravity map of Tacoma area, Washington (unpublished), University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, 1964", which contributed to his first scientific publication in 1965.[4]

Brau served as student body president at Lincoln High School in Tacoma,[5] where he graduated in 1965.[6] He received an appointment from Rep. Thor Tollefson to the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA),[7] where he double-majored in physics and mathematics, and was a member of Pi Mu Epsilon mathematics honorary fraternity.[8]

On the USAFA Superintendent's List for academic and military excellence, Brau was also a member of Academy Student Section of American Institute of Physics, a member of Pi Mu Epsilon,[9] and he earned the Maj. Gen. George O. Squier Award as outstanding cadet in physics.[10] Brau earned a Bachelor of Science in 1969 as a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.[10]

Brau earned a Scientiæ Magister degree in physics in 1970 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with advisor Irwin A. Pless. Brau's Master's thesis, Prism Plot: A New Analysis of Multibody Final States was published in 1971.[11] While serving at Kirtland AFB, Brau took graduate classes at the University of New Mexico in 1972–1973.[12]

Brau received Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowships (1969–1970 and 1974–77).[10][13] Based on data collected at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory with research advisor Richard K. Yamamoto, in January 1978 Brau earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics at MIT.[14]

Career and research

U.S. Air Force (1970–1974)

Brau served in the Guidance Test Directorate at Holloman Air Force Base (1970–1971), and in the Theoretical Branch of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base (1971–1974), working with Gregory Canavan. At Kirtland Brau carried out theoretical studies of laser-target interactions, electromagnetic pulse, and charged particle beams. He served as chief of Kirtland's General Physics Group (1973–1974), and resigned his Air Force commission in 1974 as a captain.[15]

Stanford University (1978–1982)

Brau was a research associate at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) (1978–1982) in the hybrid bubble chamber experimental research group. There he was responsible for the hybrid bubble chamber facility's lead glass detector, in collaboration with colleagues from Duke University, Florida State University and the University of Tennessee.[16]

University of Tennessee (1982–1988)

On the physics faculty at the University of Tennessee from 1982 to 1988, he continued investigations of photo-production of charmed particles and vector mesons at SLAC.[17] He joined the SLD Collaboration, beginning preparations for an experiment at the SLAC Linear Collider. He studied the design of a uranium calorimeter for SLD and in 1985 published an analysis in collaboration with Tony A. Gabriel — the first to show that despite earlier experimental work, compensation cannot be achieved with liquid argon readout. Using Monte Carlo calculations, Brau and Gabriel showed the importance of low energy neutron interactions with the readout medium hydrogen to achieve compensation.[18]

University of Oregon (1988 –present)

Brau joined the physics faculty at the University of Oregon in 1988, establishing the first Oregon experimental particle physics group to collaborate with Oregon's existing particle theory group.[19] During early years at Oregon, Brau's research continued to be based on the SLAC Linear Collider where he collaborated on the SLD experiment. He led the design, construction and operation of an innovative silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter luminosity monitor.[20]

During the active period of the Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) Brau joined the GEM detector project. When the SSC was terminated in 1993, he was appointed project manager for the SLD vertex detector upgrade at SLAC, and led the project which produced a 307,000,000 pixel CCD vertex detector for SLD.[21]

The University of Oregon established the Center for High Energy Physics in 1997, with Brau as founding director.[22] Brau's research group participated in the NuTeV experiment at Fermilab and BaBar at PEP-II at SLAC before applying to join the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2005. According to the University's Oregon News, he headed "the large UO contingent of faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students at the LHC."[23] In 2012 he was a co-author of the 2012 ATLAS Higgs boson discovery paper.[24]

Brau led the Oregon group into the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration in 1997. He was a co-author of the gravitational wave discovery paper in 2016.[25]

Advisory panels, committees, and councils (1995–present)

Brau served on numerous advisory panels and review committees, such as the National Research Council Committee on Elementary Particle Physics, (1995–1998),[26] and as associate director for physics and detectors for the Linear Collider Collaboration.[27][28]

Brau chaired the SLAC Scientific Policy Committee (2001–2004), and served on Fermilab's Physics Advisory Committee (2002–2006). He also served on the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron Physics Review Committee (2003–2007).[29]

Brau participated on the Department of Energy High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) (2005–2008,[30] on the National Research Council Board on Physics and Astronomy (2006–2009),[31] and on the HEPAP Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (2007–2011).[32]

Brau has served on the International Advisory Board, Physics at the Terascale, Strategic Helmholtz Alliance, Germany, since 2007,[33] and the International Advisory Committee, International Conference on Calorimetry in Particle Physics, since 2013.[34]

Brau co-chaired the organizing committee of the World-wide Study of the Physics and Detectors for Future Linear electron-positron Colliders (2002–2014).[35] He has been a leader in the worldwide collaboration to design and build the International Linear Collider.[10][35][36] In December 2016 Brau was named "Associate Director for Physics and Detectors" of the Linear Collider Collaboration, effective January 2017.[37]

Ph.D. graduates advised

  • Pitts, K.T. (1 March 1994). Electroweak coupling measurements from polarized Bhabha scattering at the Z0 resonance (Thesis). pp. SLAC––446, 10114075. Bibcode:1994PhDT.........4P. doi:10.2172/10114075.
  • Hwang, H (August 1994). QCD Test in Three-Jet Z0 Decays at SLD and Detector Development for H0 --> Gamma Gamma Searches in High-Energy Hadron Colliders (Thesis). pp. SLAC–R–689, 826663. doi:10.2172/826663. S2CID 123842272.
  • Langston, Matthew D (15 July 2003). A Measurement of the Effective Electron Neutral Current Coupling Parameters from Polarized Bhabha Scattering at the Z0 Resonance (Thesis). pp. SLAC–R–629, 813363. Bibcode:2003PhDT.......104L. doi:10.2172/813363. OSTI 813363.
  • Walston, S (22 June 2004). Heavy Flavor Decays of the Z0 and a Search for Flavor Changing Neutral Currents (Thesis). pp. SLAC–R–728, 827017. Bibcode:2004PhDT........67W. doi:10.2172/827017. OSTI 827017.
  • Ito, Masahiro (2006). Search for supernova induced gravitational wave bursts with optimal filter technique on LIGO science data (Thesis). ProQuest 305274497.
  • Strube, Jan (September 2008). Analysis of radiative decays of charged B mesons to baryonic final states (Thesis). hdl:1794/9022.
  • Searcy, Jacob (11 July 2013). Measurement of the Top Quark Pair Production Cross Section in p-p Collisions at √s = 7 TeV in the l + τ Channel with ATLAS (Thesis). hdl:1794/12944.
  • Brost, Elizabeth (27 October 2016). Search for the Flavor-Changing Neutral Current in Top Pair Events in sqrt(s) = 8 TeV Proton-Proton Collisions at the Large Hadron Collider Using the ATLAS Detector (Thesis). hdl:1794/20406.
  • Wanotayaroj, Chaowaroj (1 May 2017). Search for a Scalar Partner of the Top Quark in the Jets+ETMiss Final State with the ATLAS detector (Thesis). hdl:1794/22275.
  • Barkeloo, Jason (24 September 2020). Search for the Flavor-Changing Neutral Current, t->qgamma, in Top Pair Events Using the Atlas Detector (Thesis). hdl:1794/25619.
  • Steinhebel, Amanda (13 September 2021). Much Ado About Nothing: Searches for Higgs Boson Decays to Invisible Particles (Ph.D. thesis). University of Oregon. hdl:1794/26657.

Honors and awards

Upon graduation from USAFA, Brau was named the Outstanding Cadet in Physics of the Class of 1969.[38] He was a Hertz Foundation Fellow for the duration of his graduate work at MIT.[10][39]

In 2000, Brau was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, for "contributions to the development of particle detectors, particularly calorimeters and vertex detectors, and for studies of the properties of the Z boson with the SLD".[40]

Brau is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.[12]

At the University of Oregon in 2006, Brau was named Philip H. Knight Professor of Natural Science, an endowed position funded by Oregon alumnus Philip H. Knight.[41]

In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for "distinguished contributions to the field of elementary particle physics, particularly for developing and applying new technologies to facilitate precision tests of the Standard Model".[42][43]

In 2011, Brau received the University of Oregon Research Innovation Award.[19] In 2012, he was chosen to deliver the Inaugural Presidential Research Lecture at the University of Oregon.[44]

As a team member of the LIGO discovery team, Brau was a co-recipient of each of the following prizes: 2016 Gruber Cosmology Prize,[45] 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics,[46] 2017 Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award,[47] and the 2017 AAS Bruno Rossi Prize.[48]

References

  1. ↑ "AF Academy to Graduate 3 from Area". The News Tribune. 1969-05-26. p. 6. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  2. ↑ "Fulda Families - pafg1342 - Generated by Personal Ancestral File". fuldaohio.org. Retrieved 2026-06-10.
  3. ↑ "Rose M. Brau". The News Tribune. 2011-03-10. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-06-11.
  4. ↑ Daneš, Z. F.; Bonno, M. M.; Brau, E.; Gilham, W. D.; Hoffman, T. F.; Johansen, D.; Jones, M. H.; Malfait, B.; Masten, J.; Teague, G. O. (1965). "Geophysical investigation of the southern Puget Sound area, Washington". Journal of Geophysical Research. 70 (22): 5573–5580. Bibcode:1965JGR....70.5573D. doi:10.1029/JZ070i022p05573. ISSN 2156-2202.
  5. ↑ "Liberty Shrine Presented to Lincoln High". The News Tribune. 1964-11-11. p. 16. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  6. ↑ "'Frontiers' of Mind, Spirit and Heart Yet to Be Conquered, 1965 Lincoln Graduates Told". The News Tribune. 1965-06-15. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  7. ↑ "8 Appointed to Academies". The News Tribune. 1965-06-28. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
  8. ↑ "Initiates" (PDF). Pi Mu Epsilon Journal. 4 (9): 39. 1968.
  9. ↑ "Dad reads Wedding Rites for Daughter". The News Tribune. 1969-07-13. p. 79. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 "2016 Fellows Summer Workshop". www.hertzfoundation.org. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  11. ↑ Brau, J. E.; Dao, F. T.; Hodous, M. F.; Pless, I. A.; Singer, R. A. (1971-11-22). "Prism Plot: A New Analysis of Multibody Final States". Physical Review Letters. 27 (21): 1481–1485. Bibcode:1971PhRvL..27.1481B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.27.1481. ISSN 0031-9007.
  12. 1 2 "Curriculum vitae, James E. Brau" (PDF). University of Oregon. 2025. Archived (PDF) from the original on Dec 6, 2025. Retrieved June 9, 2026.
  13. ↑ "James Brau". hertzfoundation.org. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  14. ↑ Brau, James (January 1978). "Inclusive and Semi-Inclusive Charge Structure in Pion-Proton Multiparticle Production Reactions at 150 Gev/c". ResearchGate. Archived from the original on 2025-12-07. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  15. ↑ "2016 Summer Workshop". Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 2026-06-11.
  16. ↑ Brau, J.E.; Butler, J.; Bugg, W.M.; Carroll, J.T.; Cautis, C.V.; Cohn, H.O.; Condo, G.; Dado, S.; Davenport, F.; Diamond, R.; Erickson, R.; Ferguson, M.; Field, R.C.; Fortney, L.R.; Franek, B.; Gearhart, R.; Glanzman, T.; Goldberg, J.; Goshaw, A.T.; Hagopian, V.; Handler, T.; Hargis, H.J.; Hart, E.; Huang, D.Q.; Kelsey, D.P.; Lannutti, J.; Lucas, P.W.; Moffeit, K.C.; Maruyama, T.; Palounek, A.P.T.; Parker, D.B.; Rafatian, A.; Robertson, W.J.; Rogers, A.H.; Sugahara, R.; Takahashi, K.; Tether, S.; Walker, W.D.; Yamaguchi, A.; Yamamoto, R.K. (May 1982). "The lead glass columns: A large shower detector at the SLAC hybrid facility". Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. 196 (2–3): 403–413. Bibcode:1982NIMPR.196..403B. doi:10.1016/0029-554X(82)90105-7. OSTI 1446127. Archived from the original on September 17, 2024. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  17. ↑ Abe, K.; Armenteros, R.; Bacon, T. C.; Ballam, J.; Bingham, H. H.; Brau, J. E.; Braune, K.; Brick, D.; Bugg, W. M.; Butler, J. M.; Cameron, W.; Cohn, H. O.; Colley, D. C.; Condo, G. T.; Dingus, P. (1986-01-01). "Lifetimes, cross sections, and production mechanisms of charmed particles produced by 20-GeV photons". Physical Review D. 33 (1): 1–18. Bibcode:1986PhRvD..33....1A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.33.1. ISSN 0556-2821. OSTI 1447743. PMID 9956437. Archived from the original on 2026-03-11.
  18. ↑ Brau, J.; Hargis, H. J.; Gabriel, T. A.; Bishop, B. L. (January 1, 1985). "Monte Carlo Studies of Uranium Calorimetry". Nucl. Instrum. Methods A. 238 (2–3): 489–495. Bibcode:1985NIMPA.238..489B. doi:10.1016/0168-9002(85)90490-5. Archived from the original on September 17, 2024.
  19. 1 2 "2011 Research Innovation Awards - Discovery and Connection". University of Oregon. June 2011. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  20. ↑ Berridge, S. C.; Brau, J. E.; Bugg, W. M.; Frey, R.; Furuno, K.; Gioumousis, A.; Haller, G.; Huber, Jennifer S.; Hwang, H. (January 1, 1992). "First results from the SLD silicon calorimeters". IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 39 (5): 1242–1248. Bibcode:1992ITNS...39.1242B. doi:10.1109/23.173184. OSTI 10178797. S2CID 12582455. Archived from the original on March 5, 2017.
  21. ↑ Abe, K.; Arodzero, A.; Baltay, C.; Brau, J. E.; Breidenbach, M.; Burrows, P. N.; Chou, Aaron S.; Crawford, G.; Damerell, C. J. S. (January 1, 1997). "Design and performance of the SLD vertex detector, a 307 Mpixel tracking system". Nucl. Instrum. Methods A. 400 (2–3): 287–343. Bibcode:1997NIMPA.400..287A. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.432.6540. doi:10.1016/S0168-9002(97)01011-5. Archived from the original on March 5, 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |citeseerx= (help)
  22. ↑ "James Brau". Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 2026-06-14.
  23. ↑ "UO physicists to seek dark matter particles when collider resumes - Around the O". around.uoregon.edu. 2015-04-14. Archived from the original on September 18, 2024. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  24. ↑ Aad, G.; et al. (21 December 2012). "A Particle Consistent with the Higgs Boson Observed with the ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider" (PDF). Science. 338 (6114): 1576–1582. Bibcode:2012Sci...338.1576Q. doi:10.1126/science.1232005. hdl:11376/1489. PMID 23258888. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 5, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2024.
  25. ↑ LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration (2016-02-11). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Physical Review Letters. 116 (6) 061102. arXiv:1602.03837. Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116f1102A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. PMID 26918975. S2CID 119286014.
  26. ↑ Elementary-Particle Physics: Revealing the Secrets of Energy and Matter. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1998. doi:10.17226/6045. ISBN 978-0-309-06037-0.
  27. ↑ "Brau to help lead international effort on next-generation collider". OregonNews. 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2026-06-11.
  28. ↑ Elementary-Particle Physics, Revealing the Secrets of Energy and Matter, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1998. doi:10.17226/28839.
  29. ↑ "PRC Members 2005" (PDF). February 2005. Retrieved Jun 13, 2026.
  30. ↑ "Past HEPAP Membership". U.S. Department of Energy | Office of Science. 18 March 2025. Retrieved June 11, 2026.
  31. ↑ Plasma Science - Advancing Knowledge in the National Interest. The National Academies Press. 2007.
  32. ↑ "US Particle Physics: Scientific Opportunities - A Strategic Plan for the Next Ten Years - P5 Membefship" (PDF). science.osti.gov. 29 May 2008. Retrieved Jun 14, 2026.
  33. ↑ "Who's Who in the Helmholtz Alliance? International Advisory Board" (PDF). www.terascale.de. 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2026.
  34. ↑ "International Advisory Committee". Calor 2026. 2026.
  35. 1 2 "International Organizing Committee". uoregon.edu. Archived from the original on May 27, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  36. ↑ "Jim Brau - LC NewsLine". newsline.linearcollider.org. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  37. ↑ "Press statement LCWS2016, LC NewsLine". Newsline, the Newsletter of the Linear Collider Community. Linear Collider Collaboration. December 8, 2016. Archived from the original on November 9, 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  38. ↑ "The Falconews - Air Force Academy". Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Vol. 11. June 4, 1969. Number 31. CIC Leon A. Wittwer and CIC James E. Brau are co-winners of the Maj. Gen. George O. Squier Award as outstanding cadets in physics.
  39. ↑ "Hertz Foundation Fellows". hertzfoundation.org. Archived from the original on March 5, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  40. ↑ "APS Fellows Archive". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2025-09-23.
  41. ↑ "Jim Brau, Department of Physics". OregonNews. Retrieved 2026-06-10.
  42. ↑ "Brau, DeRose and Tyler elected AAAS fellows". uonews.uoregon.edu. December 7, 2009. Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  43. ↑ "Elected Fellows - AAAS". membercentral.aaas.org. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  44. ↑ "Inaugural Presidential Research Lecture will explore the Higgs boson". University of Oregon. 2012. Archived from the original on April 19, 2023.
  45. ↑ "Ligo Team Members | Gruber Foundation". gruber.yale.edu. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  46. ↑ "Special Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics Awarded For Detection Of Gravitational Waves 100 Years After Albert Einstein Predicted Their Existence | Breakthrough Prize". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved 2026-06-10.
  47. ↑ "Gravitational Waves Researchers receive Royal Astronomical Society Award". Cardiff University. Retrieved 2026-06-10.
  48. ↑ "HEAD Rossi Prize Goes to Gabriela González & LIGO Team | American Astronomical Society". aas.org. Retrieved 2026-06-10.
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