Brandt, W. (Werner)

Werner Brandt was a professor of physics at New York University and the director of its Radiation and Solid State Physics Laboratory. He headed research that investigated atomic radiation and solid state physics. Brandt was also an enthusiastic advocate of the arts and supported interdependence between science and humanities.

Brandt was born in Kiel, Germany on May 19, 1925. His mother was descended from a long line of scientists, philosophers, and physicians, and both his grandfather and father taught at the University of Heidelberg. Brandt received his bachelor’s degree (1948), his master’s (1950), and his PhD (1951) from Heidelberg. In 1951, Brandt also began working with Niels Bohr at the University Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. It was there that Brandt became interested in research on the interaction of charged particles with matter. Brandt joined the Dupont Research Laboratories in Wilmington, Delaware in 1952, with the purpose of exploring the uses of atomic waste. In 1957, Brandt became a United States citizen. (As leader of research in the Dupont Radiation Physics Laboratory, Brandt concluded that atomic wastes were dangerous to the environment.)

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