Donald Braben
British physicist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald W. Braben was a British author and Honorary Professor in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research), University College London.[1]
Donald W. Braben | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 May 1935[1] |
| Died | 23 February 2025 (aged 89)[citation needed] |
| 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 |
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.
