James S. Brooks

James S. Brooks, 1944 - 2014

James Stephen Brooks, the Grace and William Moulton Professor of Physics and Chair of the Department of Physics at Florida State University (FSU), passed away suddenly on September 27, 2014 at his home in Alligator Point, Florida. He was Director of the Condensed Matter Experimental Group at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) at the time of his death at 70 years of age.

Jim, or “Brooks” as he was affectionately known by all, was born on July 18, 1944 in Chicago, and was raised in Los Alamos, where his father Melvin (who died in May 2014 at the age of 96) was a chemical engineer on the Manhattan Project. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1966, Brooks received a Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of Oregon, for a thesis entitled The Properties of Superfluid Helium below 1.6 Degrees Kelvin. His advisor was Russell J. Donnelly. Brooks did post-doctoral research at Minnesota with William Zimmermann and then at UMass Amherst with Robert Hallock, where he was also a Visiting Assistant Professor. He started an Assistant Professor position at Boston University in 1979, becoming full Professor in 1991 before moving to FSU in 1994.

Brooks supervised more than 30 Ph.D. students and 20 post-docs in his academic career, and published more than 250 papers. His research was continuously funded by the National Science Foundation for a span of 33 years until his untimely death.

The above facts, however, do not tell the story of James Brooks. He was an enormously personable and caring human being, simultaneously private about his personal life and gregarious in the world of physics. A selfless and tireless worker who led by example, he took great care in positioning his students to succeed. He was ever the engaging teacher, and consistently encouraged people young and old to enjoy science, and life in general, and to push scientific boundaries. Brooks was a global “magnet man”, based at the United States’ high magnetic field laboratory, yet traveling often to collaborate with friends and colleagues at high field facilities the world over. An experimentalist par excellence, Brooks was a pioneer in combining low temperatures with strong magnetic fields to study physical phenomena of novel materials under such extremes, starting at the Francis Bitter National Magnet Lab at MIT in 1980, and continuing at the NHMFL in Tallahassee. Jim Brooks published numerous seminal papers on low dimensional molecular organic conductors and superconductors, leaving a legacy that will surely stand the test of time.

Brooks is survived his longtime companion Janet Patten of Tallahassee, Fla., his sister Marcia DeLeon of Edgewood, NM, and his sister Marla Brooks and nephew James Brooks of Los Alamos, NM.

Michael J. Naughton, Boston College
Greg Boebinger, Florida State University and NHMFL
Robert Hallock, UMass Amherst