Charles Hosea Braden, Regents’ Professor of Physics Emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology, died at his home in Atlanta on 20 November 2004 after a long struggle with a form of cancer unique to asbestos exposure. He had likely been exposed to the substance during ship refitting some 50 years earlier.
Charlie was born on 21 March 1926 in Chicago and spent his earliest years in the city. After completing his secondary-school education, and with the outbreak of World War II, he began training with the US Navy and ultimately served from 1943 to 1947 as a training and supply officer with the rank of ensign. His interests in science and engineering started to flower while he was in the service, and it is to the credit of the navy that it assigned Charlie to Columbia University in 1944. He enrolled as a student there and received his BS in engineering in 1946. Through most of 1946–47, the navy assigned him to duty with the supply corps in Boston and the USS Crescent City in the Pacific.
After completing his service in the military, Charlie pursued graduate studies in the physics department at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where his skills as a nuclear experimentalist soon became evident. He joined Franklin Shull’s group and within two years had collaborated on three papers in the area of beta-ray spectrometry. The Washington University cyclotron provided the focus for his doctoral research. By the time he completed his PhD in 1951, he had not only published his dissertation study on proton–alpha scattering but had collaborated on two other investigations into alpha–alpha and proton–proton scattering.
It has been said that Charlie’s arrival at Georgia Tech as assistant professor in the fall of 1951 marked the turning point in establishing a significant research presence in physics at the university. Soon after his arrival, he and several other active young faculty members constructed and equipped an experimental nuclear physics research laboratory, lined up prospective graduate students, and obtained the necessary external support to fund the program. The first paper to come out of that Georgia Tech nuclear collaboration appeared in the Physical Review in 1954.
For the next 20 years, the group led by Lemuel David “Dave” Wyly and Charlie was responsible for a series of investigations into nuclear structure through observations of beta and gamma rays from radioactive nuclides. That successful nuclear program led to the creation of additional research areas and ultimately laid the foundation for the current level of research activity within the school of physics.
Howard McMillen, then program director for physics at NSF, invited Charlie to go to Washington, DC, to serve as an associate program director during 1959–60. Charlie and his colleagues in Washington spent most of that year studying the personnel situation in the burgeoning area of high-energy physics. A report of their findings was published in the December 1960 issue of Physics Today.
Charlie’s contributions, however, were not confined to research. He was also active in education and administrative service. He introduced new courses, and, having recognized that many of Georgia Tech’s physics majors went directly into industry, he assumed major responsibility for developing an undergraduate applied physics degree program. He served the school of physics as associate director (1972–80) and interim director (1980–82). In 1973 the chancellor of the University System of Georgia appointed him chair of the Committee on Tenure Policy; Charlie held that position for seven years.
The acuity of Charlie’s thought processes was apparent to all who had contact with him. He was endowed with a remarkable physical insight that allowed him to cut to the heart of a problem and quickly develop a solution. For that reason, he was a much sought-after teacher, almost revered by his students. Over the years, he served as an inspiration to generations of Georgia Tech students at all levels. The university presented its Outstanding Teacher award to him in 1970 and its highest academic rank of Regents’ Professor in 1971. In 1983 the student body’s ANAK Society chose him for its award in recognition of his outstanding administrative and educational contributions.
After retiring in 1991, Charlie maintained an active interest in current physics research and science education. He was a consultant to the Fernbank Science Center of the DeKalb County School System.
Charlie had broad interests ranging from the latest in societal models and physical theories to model railroading. As those of us who saw him regularly can attest, one could have a thought-provoking conversation with him on just about any subject, theoretical or practical. We miss him, the quality of his thought, and those conversations. His loss is felt by the entire Georgia Tech community and all those who knew him.
