Obituary of Wesley Emil Brittin

Wesley Emil Brittin died August 1, 2006 following a long illness. Wes was born April 27, 1917 in Philadelphia. He attended Temple University and the University of Denver before earning a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1942. He earned a M.S. degree in physics from the University of Colorado in 1945 and a second Master’s in mathematics and physics from Princeton in 1947. He earned his Ph.D. in physics in 1957 from the University of Alaska where he worked with Sydney Chapman on statistical mechanics and transport phenomena in a fully ionized gas.

In August of 1943, as a student, he was appointed an Assistant in the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado and he remained associated with the Department the rest of his life. He was elected Chair of the Department in the spring of 1958 and he served in this capacity until 1974. Working with Edward Condon, George Gamow and Albert Weaver, he led in the initiation of the Summer Theoretical Physics Institute that was held in Boulder each summer from 1958 through 1971. This Institute brought theoretical physics faculty and students to Boulder from all parts of the world for intense sessions of lectures and study. Many of the students who participated in these institutes have since achieved prominence in theoretical physics. The texts of each summer’s lectures were published in one or more volumes for a total of 26 volumes. Brittin managed the Institute, gave lectures and participated with others in the editing of all of the volumes. [Starting in 1968, K.T. Mahanthappa shared with Brittin the responsibilities of the conduct of the Institute and the editing of the volumes.] Brittin served as Acting Dean of the Graduate School of the University throughout the calendar year 1968, after which he was a visiting professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Geneva, Switzerland. Following the death of George Gamow he led in the establishment of the George Gamow Memorial Lectures at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Brittin led the Department in the negotiations with the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) and the university administration that resulted in the establishment in 1962 of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (now JILA). He was a “Founding Fellow” of JILA. He led the way in planning a large complex of buildings that houses JILA, the Department, and the existing Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) (which had evolved from work that started in the Department in the late 1940s). Brittin was instrumental in obtaining state and federal funding for the construction of the Department’s academic components of complex of buildings, the Duane Physical Laboratories, which were completed in 1971. He played a prominent role in the University’s application to the National Science Foundation for a “Centers of Excellence” grant which was awarded in 1965. This brought with it the unusual opportunity to enlarge the Department’s faculty, a task which Wes conducted with vigor and high standards, adding new faculty and enlarging and balancing the roles of research and teaching in the Department.

Wes’ managerial style was informal, low-key, but focused. He presided over an unprecedented expansion of the faculty and of the role of the Department of Physics. In this he was aided significantly by the parallel high quality development of JILA. In addition to bringing promising young physicists, he brought senior people including Frank Oppenheimer in 1962 and Edward U. Condon in 1964. Wes never relaxed in his efforts to advance excellence in the Department.

Brittin played a prominent role at the interface of science and the government of Colorado. In 1972 he organized the Governor’s Scientific Advisory Council which he chaired in the 1970s for three governors of Colorado. He was a member of the Board of Directors that undertook the establishment of the Metropolitan Science Center in Denver.

In May of 1981 he received the George Norlin Award of the Alumni Association of the University of Colorado and in May of 1995 he was Professor Emeritus of Physics recognized by the University’s College of Engineering as an outstanding graduate of the College.

He is survived by his wife Janine and five children.

Contributions may be sent to the Wesley Brittin Scholarship for Graduate Students in Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, Box 390, University of Colorado at Boulder, 80309-0390.