Donald Braben

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Donald W. Braben
Born(1935-05-29)29 May 1935 [1]
Liverpool, England
Died23 February 2025(2025-02-23) (aged 89)[ citation needed ]
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.ucl.ac.uk/planetary-sciences/people/dwbra04

Donald W. Braben was a British author and Honorary Professor in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research), University College London. [1]

Contents

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

  1. 1 2 "Donald Braben UCL Earth Sciences - UCL - Blue Skies Research" . Retrieved 26 July 2011.
  2. ↑ Braben, Donald W. (2012). Energy Levels of Na 23 (PhD thesis). University of Liverpool.(subscription required)
  3. 1 2 https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/professor-don-braben-89-champion-of-scientific-inquiry-who-promoted-blue-skies-research-8cj8tpm8v
  4. ↑ Donald W. Braben (2008). Scientific freedom: the elixir of civilization. New York: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN   978-0-470-22654-4.
  5. ↑ Augsdorfer, P. (2008). "Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilization. By Donald W. Braben". ChemBioChem. 9 (17): 2889–2890. doi:10.1002/cbic.200800670.
  6. ↑ Braben, D. W. (2004). Pioneering research: a risk worth taking. New York: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN   0-471-48852-6.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ Braben, D. W. (1985). "Innovation and academic research". Nature. 316 (6027): 401–402. Bibcode:1985Natur.316..401B. doi:10.1038/316401a0.
  9. ↑ Braben, D. W. (1994). To be a scientist . Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-852290-8.
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