Karl Brown's Role in TRANSPORT

Wolfgang Panofsky has done a thorough job of documenting the many and varied accomplishments of his former student Karl Brown (see the obituary in Physics Today, March 2003, page 99). However, one item requires clarification.

Brown contributed to, but did not originate, the computer program TRANSPORT. The originators of that program were Charles Moore, Hal Butler, and Sam Howry, all from SLAC. Brown had been using ray-tracing methods, but he liked the way the new program worked and adopted it for his own use.

A major strength of Brown's was in recognizing the potential of a new idea and then investing the effort to develop that idea. So it was with TRANSPORT. Brown and Howry continued to develop the program, adding the capability of calculating second-order matrix elements. Brown also worked with Barbara Kear (SLAC) to develop a free-field data-reading package. Brown, Howry, and Kear put together a TRANSPORT manual that, for a generation of physicists, also served as an introduction to the science of charged-particle optics.

Brown continued to be involved in the development of TRANSPORT, working with a somewhat international family that included Christoph Iselin (CERN), Frank Rothacker (SLAC), and me (Fermilab). Progress in charged-particle optics will continue, but will be missing the personal guidance of a founder of the field.