Lewis Branscomb

Lewis Branscomb is Public Service Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management in the Aetna Chair Emeritus and former Chair of the Program on Science, Technology and Public Policy (1986 – 1996) in the BelferCenter in HKS. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of California, San Diego and Distinguished Research Fellow in the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation of the University of California. A former Director of the National Bureau of Standards (1969 – 1972, now NIST) and Vice President and Chief Scientist of IBM (1972 – 1986), he served as Chairman of the National Science Board (1980 – 1984). A pioneer in negative ion photodetachment, he is author of books on science and technology policy, disaster resilience and counter terrorism, and early stage technology innovation. His AB in physics is from DukeUniversity (summa cum laude, 1945) and physics PhD in 1950 from Harvard, where he was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows.