Theodore and Audrey Brown Receive the 2015 LAS Dean's Quadrangle Award

Date
11/01/15

The Brown's association with the University of Illinois has been a mutually beneficial relationship. During Dr. Brown’s 38-year career with the University he served as a chemistry professor, the vice chancellor for research and graduate dean, the founding director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Sciences and Technology, and the interim vice chancellor for academic affairs. Mrs. Brown's association has been equally vital. After raising five children, she enrolled in the College of LAS receiving her degree in religious studies in 1989. An active volunteer in the Urbana-Champaign communities, Audrey served as a member of the board of trustees for the University YMCA. Grateful for their longtime affiliation with the University and their desire to provide opportunities for undergraduate students, the Browns created the Theodore L. and Audrey C. Brown Scholarship endowments that have supported 22 students since its inception.

Theodore Brown Bio
Theodore Brown is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and Founding Director Emeritus of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Institute. Dr. Brown received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1956. He has been a faculty member in the UIUC Department of Chemistry since 1956 (he assumed emeritus status in January 1994). During 1980-1986 he served as Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate College. In 1987 he became the founding director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Institute, and served in that role through 1993. The Beckman Institute at Illinois is 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.

Among many board and committee activities, he was President of the Association of Graduate Schools of the AAU universities during 1985-86. He was a member of the National Academies Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable during 1989-1994; American Chemical Society (ACS) Governing Board for Chemical Abstracts Services, 1991-1996; ACS Governing Board for Publishing, 1996-2004.

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.

Professor Brown's current interests are in the cognitive, philosophical and social aspects of the scientific enterprise. In 2003 he authored Making Truth: Metaphor in Science, which explores the essential roles of metaphorical reasoning in science. He has also written on the authority and moral authority of science in society: Imperfect Oracle: The Authority and Moral Authority of Science in Society, was published in 2009 by Pennsylvania State University Press. A book on the origins of the Beckman Institute, Bridging Divides, was published in 2009 by the University of Illinois Press. He is a subject editor for chemistry of the New Scribner's Dictionary of Scientific Biography, and continues as coauthor of the best-selling general chemistry text, Chemistry: The Central Science, now in its 12th edition.

LAS Dean's Quadrangle Award
This award was inaugurated in 2000 to honor extraordinary friends of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This award is presented to people who have demonstrated profound confidence in and support of the college’s diverse mission, and who have personified throughout their lives and careers the unique benefits and responsibilities that define a liberal arts and sciences education. The award also recognizes individuals who have maintained a lifelong personal bond with the College.

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