Robert G. W. Brown

Dr. Robert G. W. Brown was chief executive officer of the American Institute of Physics, a federation of 10 Member Societies in the physical sciences, which in total serve 120,000 members in the United States and around the world, from 2015-2017. As a trained physicist and engineer, Brown has made substantial contributions in research, product and business development, teaching, publishing, editorial direction, and administration. He has held various leadership positons in the corporate, non-profit, academic, and government sectors, principally in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Northern Ireland, with additional ventures throughout Europe and Asia. His research interests extend from nanotechnology to photonics, optics, medical physics, fluid dynamics, and beyond. Brown has authored more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals and holds 34 patents, several of which have been successfully commercialized. As CEO, he served as an ex-officio member on the boards of AIP and AIP Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of the institute. 

Brown is an elected member of the European Academy of the Sciences and Arts (Academia Europaea) and a special professor at the University of Nottingham in the UK. He also retains an adjunct full professorship at the University of California, Irvine in the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic and is a visiting professor in the Department of Computer Science, also at UC Irvine. 

Before coming to AIP, Brown most recently led the nano-plasmonic research activities at Rockwell Collins’ Advanced Technology Center, and was chief technology officer to Ostendo Technologies, a specialist display company, in Carlsbad, California. He served for various years as professor and director of nanotechnology for Northern Ireland; executive director of the UK Institute of Physics; and head of optoelectronics research and development for Sharp Laboratories of Europe, the world’s third largest optoelectronics corporation. As a principal scientist in the UK Ministry of Defence’s Royal Radar Establishment, Brown was responsible for inventing new detector, electronic correlator, APD photo-detector, laser-diode, liquid-crystal display and optical-fiber technologies that have since been developed into successful products for experiments related to jet engines, macro-molecules, US submarines, and space shuttle instrumentation.

Brown has been recognized for his entrepreneurship with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence Prize for ‘Outstanding Technology Transfer,’ Sharp Corporation’s (Japan) prize for his novel laser-diode invention, and, together with his team at the UK Institute of Physics, a Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a UK company.  

Brown is editor-in-chief of the Handbook of Optoelectronics published by CRC Press and is co-editor-in-chief of the CRC Press book series in ‘Optics and Optoelectronics’.  He has been co-chairman for four of OSA’s International Photon Correlation Conferences, and editor of subsequent related special issues of Applied Optics. He has served as a consultant to many companies and government research centers in the USA and UK, most notably on NASA’s Microgravity Experimental Advisory Board and on the UK Home Office (Homeland Security Department equivalent) Science and Technology Reference Committee.

Brown is a citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom.