James Robert Brown was born in Port Angeles, Washington on August 17, 1930 and died in Austin on May 7, 2011 at the age of 80. He entered the University of Washington in 1949 but his studies were interrupted by his service in the US Army during the Korean War. He completed his BS in Chemistry in 1956 and obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Washington Medical School in 1963 under the supervision of Hans Neurath. He was awarded a NATO postdoctoral fellowship to work at the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England (1963-1965) where he participated in sequencing of chymotrypsin and elastase with Brian Hartley, both of whom worked alongside Frederick Sanger. Together with Hartley he developed the method of diagonal electrophoresis to locate disulfide bridges in proteins. He obtained a second NATO fellowship (1965-1966) to work in the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel before joining The University of Texas at Austin in 1966 where he worked as a faculty member and then as a Research Scientist with the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute until his retirement in 1992.
Whilst in Austin, he determined the primary sequence of both human and bovine serum albumin. He is survived by his three children, Katherine, Charlotte and Charles (from his marriage to Krista, now deceased), two granddaughters, Sunny and Lark, and his long-time partner Diane. A memorial service and informal buffet dinner will be held at Mayfield Park Cottage on May 27, 2011 from 5:30-8 pm. For catering purposes only, please rsvp to brownthompson4 AT gmail.com.
