Theodore Lawrence Brown

Theodore L. Brown is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, where he taught from 1956 to 1994 and is Founding Director Emeritus of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Institute. During 1980-1986 he served as Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate College. From 1987 to 1993 he was the founding director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Institute, among the largest and most broadly-based interdisciplinary research institutions in the world. Brown also served as interim Vice-chancellor for Academic Affairs during 1993. During 2003-2005 he co-chaired a National Academies committee under the auspices of the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy, on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation during 1994 - 2008. He was President of the Association of Graduate Schools of the AAU universities during 1985-86. His research interests have extended over the fields of inorganic and organometallic chemisty. His accomplishments include the first studies of the structures and exchange dynamics of organolithium compounds, and the earliest studies of transition metal carbonyl radicals. Brown has contributed importantly to an understanding of organonotransition metal photochemistry, nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy. He has authored and co-authored several successful college-level chemistry texts. His current scholarly interests include the roles of metaphor in science (Making Truth: Metaphor in Science, 2003) and the relationship of science to other social sectors ( Imperfect Oracle: The Epistemic and Moral Authority of Science 2009) he has served in governance affairs of the American Chemical Society, and on the Board of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. His current interests include applications of Conceptual Metaphor Theory to understanding the nature of scientific thought and practice.  A current project involves analysis of social metaphors in biological science; their origins, the ways in which they shape the scientist's understanding of nature. He has been active in advocating for Interdisciplinary Science, and cochaired a COSEPUP/NRC committee on Advancing Interdisciplinary Research. (Nature, 17 September, 2015)