Jacob Bronowski

Infobox_Scientist
name = Jacob Bronowski


caption =
birth_date = birth date|1908|1|18|mf=y
birth_place = Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
death_date = death date and age|1974|8|22|1908|1|18|mf=y
death_place = East Hampton, New York, U.S.
residence = UK
nationality = Polish-English
field = Mathematics
erdos_number =
work_institution = Salk Institute
alma_mater = University of Cambridge
doctoral_advisor = H. F. Baker
doctoral_students =
known_for = Geometry
societies =
prizes =
spouse =
children = Lisa Jardine, Judith Bronowski
religion =
handedness =
website =
footnotes =

Jacob Bronowski (January 18 1908 – August 22 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin, best remembered as the presenter and writer of the BBC television documentary series, "The Ascent of Man".

Life and work

Jacob Bronowski was born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire in 1908. His family moved to Germany during the First World War, and then to England in 1920. Although, according to Bronowski, he knew only two English words on arriving in Great Britain, [cite book | author = Bronowski, J. | title = The Common Sense of Science | publisher = Harvard University Press | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | year = 1967 | pages = 8 ] he gained admission to the Central Foundation Boys' School in London and went on to study at the University of Cambridge.

As a mathematics student at Jesus College, Cambridge, Bronowski co-edited — with William Empson — the literary periodical "Experiment", which first appeared in 1928. Bronowski would pursue this sort of dual activity, in both the mathematical and literary worlds, throughout his professional life. He was also a strong chess player, earning a half-blue while at Cambridge and composing numerous chess problems for the British Chess Magazine between 1926 and 1970. [cite web | last = Winter | first = Edward | title = Chess Notes | url = http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter34.html|accessdate = 2008-03-23] He received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1935, writing a dissertation in algebraic geometry. From 1934 to 1942 he taught mathematics at the University College of Hull. For a time in the 1930s he lived near Laura Riding and Robert Graves in Majorca.

During the Second World War Bronowski worked in operations research, and afterwards became Director of Research for the National Coal Board in the UK. Following his experiences as an official observer of the after-effects of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings, he turned to biology, as did his friend Leo Szilard, to better understand the nature of violence. Bronowski was an associate director of the Salk Institute from 1964.

Jacob Bronowski married Rita Coblentz in 1941. [cite web | last = Garson | first = Sue | title = Rita Bronowski - San Diego Jewish Journal | publisher = | url = http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/article5.html |accessdate = 2008-03-23] The couple had four children, all daughters, the eldest being the British academic Lisa Jardine and another being the filmaker Judith Bronowski.

In 1967 Bronowski delivered the six Silliman Foundation lectures at Yale University and chose as his subject the role of imagination and symbolic language in the progress of scientific knowledge. Transcripts of the lectures were published posthumously in 1978 as The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination and remain in print.

He first became familiar to the British public through appearances on the BBC television version of "The Brains Trust" in the late 1950s, but is better known for his thirteen part series "The Ascent of Man" (1973). This was an inspiration for Carl Sagan to make "" in 1980. During the making of "The Ascent of Man", Bronowski was interviewed by Michael Parkinson, and Bronowski's description of a visit to Auschwitz — he had lost many family members during the Nazi era — was described by Parkinson as one of his most memorable interviews.

Jacob Bronowski died in 1974 of a heart attack [cite web | last = Garson | first = Sue | title = Rita Bronowski - San Diego Jewish Journal | publisher = | url = http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/article5.html |accessdate = 2008-03-23] in East Hampton, New York, U.S., a year after "The Ascent of Man" was completed, and was buried in the western side of London's Highgate Cemetery, near the entrance.

Books

* "The Poet's Defence" (1939)
* "William Blake: A Man Without a Mask" (1943)
* "The Common Sense of Science" (1951)
* "The Face of Violence" (1954)
* "Science and Human Values" (1956)
* "William Blake: The Penguin Poets Series" (1958)
* "The Western Intellectual Tradition, From Leonardo to Hegel" (1960) - with Bruce Mazlish
* "Biography of an Atom" (1963) - with Millicent Selsam
* "Insight" (1964)
* "The Identity of Man" (1965)
* "Nature and Knowledge: The Philosophy of Contemporary Science" (1969)
* "William Blake and the Age of Revolution" (1972)
* "The Ascent of Man" (1974)
* "A Sense of the Future" (1977)
* "Magic Science & Civilization" (1978)
* "The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination" (1978)
* "The Visionary Eye: Essays in the Arts, Literature and Science" (1979) - edited by Piero Ariotti and Rita Bronowski

References

External links

* Has biography, pictures, and obituary.
* [http://www.drbronowski.com/ The Jacob Bronowski Archive]
* [http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Bronowski+Ascent+of+Man Video related to "The Ascent of Man"] - selections vary
* [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ins.chess/bronowski/ The Bronowski Trophy (chess)]

Persondata
NAME= Bronowski, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH= January 18 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH= Łódź, Poland
DATE OF DEATH= August 22 1974
PLACE OF DEATH= East Hampton, New York, U.S.