Brooks, Harvey

Harvey Brooks (1915-) was appointed Gordon McKay Professor in the Division of Applied Science in 1950, served as Dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics from 1956 to 1975, and was appointed the first Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy in 1976, becoming Emeritus in 1986. His research interests have been in solid state theory, the behavior of semiconductors at high pressure, radiation effects on solids, and nuclear reactor theory. Chairman and member of numerous university, scientific, and government committees, Brooks has been a leading figure in the debate surrounding the relationship among science, technology, and public policy and the accountability of scientists to government, industry, and the general public.

In 1940 Brooks received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. Previously, he earned an A.B. in mathematics from Yale University in 1937 and spent 1937-1938 at Clare College, Cambridge, England on a Henry Fellowship where he studied mathematical physics.

Brooks was appointed a Junior Fellow at Harvard, but entered war work and did not finish his tenure. During World War II he was involved with the Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, working on scanning sonar and on the design of a prototype acoustic homing torpedo. He continued his work on the torpedo project in 1945 when it moved to the Ordnance Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State College. There he was the Laboratory's Assistant Director.

From 1946 to1950 Brooks was associated with the General Electric Research Laboratory. As Associate Head of GE's Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, he contributed directly to the development of nuclear reactors in the United States for breeder and power generation.

In 1950 he joined the Harvard faculty as Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics. In 1956 he became the founding editor of the Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, serving as its editor-in-chief. During 1956-1957 he was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. From 1957 to 1975 he served as Dean of Harvard's Division of Engineering and Applied Physics. In the 1960s Brooks became increasingly interested in the relationship between public policy and science. Since that time he has published extensively in that area. In 1976 he was appointed the first Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government; he became Emeritus in 1986.

Throughout his career Brooks has served as scientific advisor to numerous corporations and government committees. He was involved with the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Research Council, the President's Science Advisory Committee, and the National Science Foundation. He has also acted as trustee of universities and organizations such as Case Western Reserve University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has been a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1950, serving as its President from 1971 to 1975. In 1961 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1962.

From the guide to the Papers of Harvey Brooks, 1930s-1980s, (Harvard University Archives)