Karl Leslie Brown

Curriculum Vitae

Stanford Professor Karl L. Brown, Ph.D., 76, died August 29, 2002 of heart failure. Karl was a member of the core team of young scientists under Pief Panofsky who designed and built SLAC. He was known worldwide as the expert in charged particle beam optics. In 1958, he introduced matrix algebra to calculate magnetic-optical aberrations in charged particle spectrometers. This computational technique was applied to the design of SLAC and his introduction of sextupole magnets was instrumental to the performance of the spectrometers in End Station A. The TRANSPORT computer code was first developed by Karl for the IBM 7090 computer to facilitate the design process. This code became the basic tool used worldwide for the design of spectrometers, beam lines and accelerators, spanning energies from MeV to TeV. In the 1960s, Karl was the first at SLAC to propose the concept of a linear collider. Later, his achromatic optical systems were crucial elements of the arcs and final focus, making it possible to obtain micron-size beams.

Karl started out as a student in electrical engineering and in his senior year in 1946 transferred from the University of Utah to Stanford University, with the goal to work on accelerators. He earned his MS in 1949 under Marvin Chodorow, with a thesis on the beam dynamics of the first high-powered klystron. After single-handedly commissioning the Mark II linear accelerator, Karl’s experimental work qualified him for a PhD in physics under Pief Panofsky.

Following graduate studies, Karl declined numerous offers from prestigious east coast institutions choosing Stanford as the place to pursue his research. He served as Research Associate and later Senior Research Associate at Hansen Labs between 1953 and 1962. It was during this period that the idea and proposal for “Project M” (for Monster) were hatched and developed. In 1957, he and Bill Kirk edited the Design Report for Project M, which was to become known as the Stanford Linear Accelerator. Karl also teamed with Arnold Eldredge and Ken Mallory to build the first linear accelerator to be used for cancer therapy. Karl has been a member of the SLAC faculty since 1974.

Karl contributed directly to accelerators at many other organizations, as a consultant, a visiting scientist, and staff member, and as president and chief scientist of Spectromagnetics, an accelerator magnet design and manufacturing company. Following its sale to Varian Associates, Karl served two years as Senior Scientist and Director of Research at Varian’s Radiation Division. During this period, the commercial development of the CLINAC began, the world’s most successful series of linear accelerators for cancer treatment. Ironically, in 2001, Karl was successfully treated for prostate cancer by one of the current CLINAC models. In 1958-1959, he was Visiting Scientist and Consultant at LAL Orsay. CERN was Karl’s base of operations in 1972-73 and 1984-85, when he contributed to the design of the secondary beams lines for the SPS and LEP lattice, respectively. While in 1992-94, his wife, Vera Lüth, served as deputy to the Director of Research at the SSC Laboratory in Dallas, Karl assisted in the layout and design of the beam transfer lines and injection systems for the various booster machines.

For decades, Karl has been recognized as the world’s expert on magnetic transport systems. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and in 1989, the US Accelerator School awarded him the Prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics and Technology. However, Karl believed that his greatest accomplishment was the CLINAC series which now treats 100,000 cancer patients per day.

Karl is survived by his wife Vera Lüth, Senior Scientist at SLAC, five children: David Brown of Danville, CA, Dennistoun Brown of Billings, MT, Adriana Cassani of Orem, UT, Jerry Brown of Los Altos, CA, and Andrew Brown of Mountain View, CA, and 14 grandchildren.