Air Force physicist earns ‘Fellow’ honors from American Physical Society

  • Published
  • By Pete Meltzer, Jr.
  • AFRL Materials & Manufacturing Directorate
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Dr. Gail J. Brown, an award-winning physicist at the Air Force Research Laboratory Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, has been awarded a Fellow appointment to the 45,000-member American Physical Society.

Dr. Brown is a research leader and principal research physicist in the Directorate's Survivability and Sensor Materials Division, Electronic and Optical Materials Branch. She was nominated by the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics for her contributions to the fundamental physics and development of "quantum confined" or "quantum well" semiconductor hetero-structure materials for applications in high-performance infrared detectors.

Dr. Brown has received several prestigious awards for her contributions to science and the Air Force, including the Air Force Basic Research Award in 2002, for cutting edge research on superlattice materials for next generation infrared sensing.

She was also recognized for exemplary leadership coordinating the research project, which involved computational modeling and growth of the superlattice materials to initial device testing of the new materials system. She later received the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal in 2007, for her leadership in this field.

Dr. Brown is also a recipient of the Charles J. Cleary Scientific Achievement Award; the highest scientific achievement honor awarded by the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. The research team Dr. Brown leads earned "STAR Team" status from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in 2002, in recognition of the high quality of their basic research efforts supporting the Air Force.

A graduate of Wright State University and the University of Dayton, Dr. Brown received WSU's Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Math and Science in 2005. She has co-authored more than 80 refereed technical journal publications, more than 70 conference proceedings papers, two book chapters, and more than 160 conference and workshop presentations.

Dr. Brown has addressed a number of symposiums and other technical gatherings throughout the United States and in France, Japan, Poland and Portugal, chaired 17 major national and international conferences, and given more than 70 technical management briefings on behalf of the Air Force. She has served as an advisor to the National Research Council and as an adjunct professor in engineering and computer science at Northwestern University.

Dr. Brown is a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the largest international professional engineering society for practicing engineers and scientists in the field of optics and photonics. She is also an AFRL Fellow. Dr. Brown is an active member of the Materials Research Society, Scientific Research Society (Sigma Xi), Physics Honor Society (Sigma Pi Sigma), the Association of Women in Science, SPIE, and APS.