Harvey Brooks Resigns As Applied Physics Dean

Harvey Brooks, dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics, said yesterday he will resign from his post as soon as President Bok selects his successor.

Brooks, who is also McKay Professor of Applied Physics, will resign to devote more time to teaching, research and to his work on national projects.

Dean Rosovsky said last night he didn't think Harvard would have a replacement for Brooks before the end of the academic year. Brooks is also Rosovsky's assistant.

Brooks said last night he decided to step down as dean two and a half year ago. "I had been dean for 15 years and I thought it was enough," he said. Brooks added he stayed on because it "wasn't convenient for the University" for him to leave at that time.

President Bok accepted Brooks's resignation and said, "The entire University is in your debt for all the years of splendid service you have given us as dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics. We will greatly miss your valuable counsel and wish you every success in your teaching and research."

Brooks has served as dean since 1957. The 58-year-old physicist graduated from Yale in 1937 and received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1940. Brooks left Harvard in 1942 to work fulltime for the war effort as a research associate at the Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, a job that ended in 1945.

Returned in 1950

After the war, Brooks headed the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory for General Electric. He returned to Harvard as McKay Professor of Applied Physics in 1950.

Brooks has strong ties to the Federal government. He is currently a member of both the National Science Board and a U.S.-U.S.S.R. joint commission on scientific and technological cooperation. From 1959 to 1964 he was a member of the president's science advisory committee.

Bok also created a committee, formed on Brooks's suggestion, to examine the teaching and research priorities of the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics.