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Jacob Bronowski
Times obituary
Scientist and mathematician
Dr. Jacob Bronowski, the mathematician and scientist, died yesterday in the United States at the age of 66.
Bronowski was born in 1908 in Poland but lived in Germany during the First World War. He came to England in 1920 and read mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1927 to 1930. He was a wrangler in that year and continued mathematical research at Cambridge from 1930 to 1933. In the following years, he published numerous papers in algebraic geometry and topology, and more recently in mathematical statistics and in mathematics applied to biology. He was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull from 1934 to 1942
He left university teaching in 1942 to become head of a number of statistical units dealing with the economic effects of hoisting. In his wartime research, he was a pioneer in the development of operational research methods. He was Scientific Deputy to the British Chiefs of Staff Mission to Japan in 1945 and wrote the classic British report, The Effects of the Atomic Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From 1945 to 1950, he was engaged in government research applying mathematical methods of analysis and forecasting to the economics of industry. In 1950, he became Director of the Coal Research Establishment of the National Coal Board. There, he was responsible for the research culminated in the discovery of the new process for making smokeless fuel. He was in charge of the full development of this process as Director-General of Process Development in the National Coal Board from 1959 to 1963
Bronowski was on loan to UNESCO as head of the Projects Division in 1947, and on leave of absence as Carnegie Visiting Professor to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953. During his stay at the Institute, he delivered the lectures on Science and Human Values, which initiated the discussion of the two cultures and have since become famous in book form.
He was the author of two widely known books on literature: The Poet's Defence (1939) and William Blake, A Man Without a Mask (1944). He was well known for his radio and television talks and dramas. These included The Face of Violence, which won the Italia Prize for the best dramatic work broadcast throughout Europe during 1950 and 1951, and The Abacus and The Rose: A New Dialogue on Two World Systems, which was broadcast by the BBC Third Programme in 1962 as one of the programs to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Corporation
The combination of scientific and literary interests made Bronowski a leader in the modern movement of Scientific Humanism. His book, The Common Sense of Science, reinterprets the development of scientific ideas in a way that makes them meaningful to scientists and non-scientists at the same time. His later works included a book of intellectual history, The Western Intellectual Tradition (with Professor Bruce Mazlish), and a book of his television programs on the concepts of modern science, entitled Insight.
In January 1964, Bronowski joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, as a senior fellow, becoming director of the Council for Biology in Human Affairs in 1970
After being away from British television and radio for a decade (he had been a popular member of the Brain's Trust), Bronowski returned in 1973 to present a 13-part series for the BBC called The Ascent of Man, which won him the Royal Television Society's silver medal for outstanding creative achievement. He spent more than two years making the program, traveling in more than 30 countries to trace the history of science and mankind from prehistoric times.
He married Rita Coblentz in 1941, and they had four daughters.
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Eric and Freda Roll write:
May we, belatedly, add a few words to your obituary of "Bruno," who remained a close friend for 40 years from the time when we first met at the University College of Hull
You have clearly brought out the salient facts of his achievements in so many areas of intellectual endeavor. This many-sidedness, and a unique gift for clear and simple exposition, particularly in a scientist and one who started in the most austere of the sciences, mathematics, made him at times the target of unfair charges of having abandoned scientific scholarship for popularization. But to those who knew him well, there was an essential unity in his approach to man's destiny: whether the instrument was geometry or biology, drama, literary criticism or poetry, the article in a learned journal or the brilliant exposition of difficult themes on radio or television which enthralled so many people of non-academic background
He would have rightly scorned the view that truth can only be pursued by what is conventionally regarded as "original research": it can be sought, if not always found, in every intellectual activity honestly undertaken, perhaps abore all in poetry. He wrote much poetry, particularly in his earlier years, though relatively little was published. His friends, however, were regularly cheered and delighted by the annual Christmas card bearing a new poem by him and a drawing by his wife. In these, and particularly in his first major book, The Poet's Defence, there is a relentless search for truth. As a mutual friend of equally long standing writes: "He was a part of the frame of reference by which I live and by which I expected to go on living," whose thinking was liberal and humane, with a belief in man, the power of education, the reality of civilized thought and behavior, the contribution of language to the evolution of man.
He was, above all, a warm, vibrant human being. Every encounter with him was a new, full tonic which left one feeling intellectually and emotionally stimulated and enhanced. He did not, however, suffer fools gladly and could be bitingly sardonic about human folly or about the glaring discrepancies so often to be found between public acclaim and true worth. But to his friends he was kind and affectionate, a companion whose gaiety and wit counterbalanced his serious approach to life. He is very much missed.
Scientist and mathematician
Dr. Jacob Bronowski, the mathematician and scientist, died yesterday in the United States at the age of 66.
Bronowski was born in 1908 in Poland but lived in Germany during the First World War. He came to England in 1920 and read mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1927 to 1930. He was a wrangler in that year and continued mathematical research at Cambridge from 1930 to 1933. In the following years, he published numerous papers in algebraic geometry and topology, and more recently in mathematical statistics and in mathematics applied to biology. He was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull from 1934 to 1942
He left university teaching in 1942 to become head of a number of statistical units dealing with the economic effects of hoisting. In his wartime research, he was a pioneer in the development of operational research methods. He was Scientific Deputy to the British Chiefs of Staff Mission to Japan in 1945 and wrote the classic British report, The Effects of the Atomic Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From 1945 to 1950, he was engaged in government research applying mathematical methods of analysis and forecasting to the economics of industry. In 1950, he became Director of the Coal Research Establishment of the National Coal Board. There, he was responsible for the research culminated in the discovery of the new process for making smokeless fuel. He was in charge of the full development of this process as Director-General of Process Development in the National Coal Board from 1959 to 1963
Bronowski was on loan to UNESCO as head of the Projects Division in 1947, and on leave of absence as Carnegie Visiting Professor to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953. During his stay at the Institute, he delivered the lectures on Science and Human Values, which initiated the discussion of the two cultures and have since become famous in book form.
He was the author of two widely known books on literature: The Poet's Defence (1939) and William Blake, A Man Without a Mask (1944). He was well known for his radio and television talks and dramas. These included The Face of Violence, which won the Italia Prize for the best dramatic work broadcast throughout Europe during 1950 and 1951, and The Abacus and The Rose: A New Dialogue on Two World Systems, which was broadcast by the BBC Third Programme in 1962 as one of the programs to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Corporation
The combination of scientific and literary interests made Bronowski a leader in the modern movement of Scientific Humanism. His book, The Common Sense of Science, reinterprets the development of scientific ideas in a way that makes them meaningful to scientists and non-scientists at the same time. His later works included a book of intellectual history, The Western Intellectual Tradition (with Professor Bruce Mazlish), and a book of his television programs on the concepts of modern science, entitled Insight.
In January 1964, Bronowski joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, as a senior fellow, becoming director of the Council for Biology in Human Affairs in 1970
After being away from British television and radio for a decade (he had been a popular member of the Brain's Trust), Bronowski returned in 1973 to present a 13-part series for the BBC called The Ascent of Man, which won him the Royal Television Society's silver medal for outstanding creative achievement. He spent more than two years making the program, traveling in more than 30 countries to trace the history of science and mankind from prehistoric times.
He married Rita Coblentz in 1941, and they had four daughters.
_________________________________________
Eric and Freda Roll write:
May we, belatedly, add a few words to your obituary of "Bruno," who remained a close friend for 40 years from the time when we first met at the University College of Hull
You have clearly brought out the salient facts of his achievements in so many areas of intellectual endeavor. This many-sidedness, and a unique gift for clear and simple exposition, particularly in a scientist and one who started in the most austere of the sciences, mathematics, made him at times the target of unfair charges of having abandoned scientific scholarship for popularization. But to those who knew him well, there was an essential unity in his approach to man's destiny: whether the instrument was geometry or biology, drama, literary criticism or poetry, the article in a learned journal or the brilliant exposition of difficult themes on radio or television which enthralled so many people of non-academic background
He would have rightly scorned the view that truth can only be pursued by what is conventionally regarded as "original research": it can be sought, if not always found, in every intellectual activity honestly undertaken, perhaps abore all in poetry. He wrote much poetry, particularly in his earlier years, though relatively little was published. His friends, however, were regularly cheered and delighted by the annual Christmas card bearing a new poem by him and a drawing by his wife. In these, and particularly in his first major book, The Poet's Defence, there is a relentless search for truth. As a mutual friend of equally long standing writes: "He was a part of the frame of reference by which I live and by which I expected to go on living," whose thinking was liberal and humane, with a belief in man, the power of education, the reality of civilized thought and behavior, the contribution of language to the evolution of man.
He was, above all, a warm, vibrant human being. Every encounter with him was a new, full tonic which left one feeling intellectually and emotionally stimulated and enhanced. He did not, however, suffer fools gladly and could be bitingly sardonic about human folly or about the glaring discrepancies so often to be found between public acclaim and true worth. But to his friends he was kind and affectionate, a companion whose gaiety and wit counterbalanced his serious approach to life. He is very much missed.
