CALTECH STUDENT HISTORY NOTES

About the Author

Christopher Earls Brennen was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, reputedly during a German air-raid of the Second World War. He grew up in the beautiful drumlin-rolling countryside around a Northern Irish country town called Magherafelt where he first acquired the love of nature that stayed with him throughout his life. He was fortunate to receive an outstanding education first at the Rainey Endowed School in Magherafelt and later at Balliol College, Oxford University. In 1969, he and his family, his wife Doreen and daughters Dana and Kathy, emigrated to California where he began his 40-year career in academia at the California Institute of Technology.

Early research accomplishments eventually persuaded Caltech to appoint him to the tenure-track and in 1976 he became an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering (he was never an Assistant Professor). Later he was granted tenure and, in 1982, was promoted to full Professor and was later appointed the Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering. In parallel with these faculty appointments, he also served in four different positions in the Caltech Administration. The first of these four year appointments was as Master of Student Houses, a position he held from 1983 to 1987; then, after a one year break, he served as Dean of Students from 1988 to 1992. After these eight years interacting with the students he thought that was the end of that phase of his career. He returned to the Mechanical Engineering Department where he served as the Executive Officer for Mechanical Engineering from 1993 to 1997. However, with the arrival of a new president, David Baltimore, he was persuaded to rejoin the administration as the Vice-President for Student Affairs, a position he held from 1997 until 2002. During all those years in the administration of Caltech he had the opportunity to meet some extraordinary people, not just remarkable scientists but also visitors from all walks of life and corners of the globe. It gave him particular pleasure to host two remarkable men from near the village in Northern Ireland where he grew up, the 1995 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Seamus Heaney, and the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize winner, John Hume.

Last updated 4/10/04.
Christopher E. Brennen