Donald Braben
Donald W. Braben | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 May 1935[1] |
| Died | 23 February 2025 (aged 89) |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | University of Liverpool |
| Known for | Blue skies research |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University College London University of Liverpool |
| Thesis | Energy levels of Na 23 (1962) |
| Website | www |
Donald W. Braben was a British author and Honorary Professor in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research), University College London.[1]
Life
Braben was educated at the University of Liverpool where he was awarded a PhD in 1962 for work on Isotopes of sodium.[2] He gained a pilot licence with the University Air Squadron, which he maintained throughout his life.[3]
At university he married Shirley, a fellow PhD; they later had three children. Braben died in 2025, aged 89.[3]
Research
Braben was a well-known critic of peer review and an advocate of blue skies research, scientific freedom[4][5][6][7][8] and the culture of science.[9] Braben was the author of To Be a Scientist: The Spirit of Adventure in Science and Technology, (OUP 1994), Pioneering Research: A Risk Worth Taking (Wiley 2004) Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilization (Wiley 2008), and Promoting the Planck Club: How defiant youth, irreverent researchers and liberated universities can foster prosperity indefinitely (Wiley 2014). Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilisation was republished by Stripe Press in 2020 with a new Introduction.
Braben tried to persuade universities to recreate the success he had with the BP-sponsored Venture Research Unit (1980–90), and later at University College London from 2009. Venture Research is research that has a good chance of radically changing the way we think in an important field and is selected in face-to-face discussion.
References
- ^ a b "Donald Braben UCL Earth Sciences - UCL - Blue Skies Research". Retrieved 26 July 2011.
- ^ (2012). Energy Levels of Na 23 (PhD thesis). University of Liverpool.(subscription required)
- ^ a b https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/professor-don-braben-89-champion-of-scientific-inquiry-who-promoted-blue-skies-research-8cj8tpm8v
- ^ Donald W. Braben (2008). Scientific freedom: the elixir of civilization. New York: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 978-0-470-22654-4.
- ^ Augsdorfer, P. (2008). "Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilization. By Donald W. Braben". ChemBioChem. 9 (17): 2889–2890. doi:10.1002/cbic.200800670.
- ^ Braben, D. W. (2004). Pioneering research: a risk worth taking. New York: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 0-471-48852-6.
- ^ Braben, D. (2002). "Blue Skies Research and the global economy". Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications. 314 (1–4): 768–773. Bibcode:2002PhyA..314..768B. doi:10.1016/S0378-4371(02)01065-8.
- ^ Braben, D. W. (1985). "Innovation and academic research". Nature. 316 (6027): 401–402. Bibcode:1985Natur.316..401B. doi:10.1038/316401a0.
- ^ Braben, D. W. (1994). To be a scientist. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-852290-8.