Kenneth Brecher (born December 7, 1943) is an American professor of astronomy and physics, emeritus at Boston University, with a focus on high-energy astrophysics, relativity, and cosmology. His wife, Aviva Brecher, is also a physicist.
Kenneth Brecher was born on December 7, 1943, to a Jewish family in Queens, New York. The son of Irving and Edythe Brecher, he had two brothers. His parents co-owned Camp Winneshewauka, a summer camp in Vermont[1], where Brecher spent many summers before he graduated from Great Neck North Senior High School in 1961.[2]
Brecher's astrophysical research interests center on a range of topics in theoretical high-energy astrophysics including neutron stars, pulsars, x-ray binary sources, supernovae, and gamma-ray bursters. He has been engaged in several materials, software, hardware, and curriculum development projects for use in K-12, undergraduate, and informal science education. He was the principal investigator on "Project LITE: Light Inquiry Through Experiments", which developed extensive array of hands-on and eyes-on educational software and materials about light, optics, color, and visual perception. He was the founding Director of the Boston University Science and Mathematics Education Center, which ran for 24 years and which developed educational curricula, trained teachers, and encouraged K-12 students to pursue careers in science and mathematics.[4]
Brecher was co-initiator and project scientist on the Harvard University's "MicroObservatory Project", which has developed a network of automated astronomical telescopes for student use. He has also worked on the history of astronomy, archaeoastronomy, and the application of early astronomical records to modern astrophysical problems. He was a co-founder of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society, with John A. Eddy and Owen Gingerich.[5]
Brecher's early work on Einstein's Theory of Relativity earned him an appearance in the 1979 film Einstein's Universe, narrated by Peter Ustinov with explanations of relativity from fellow professors Sidney Drell, Roger Penrose, Wallace Sargeant, Dennis Sciama, Irwin Shapiro, and John Archibald Wheeler. The film was first broadcast on the centenary of Albert Einstein's birth: March 14, 1979. Brecher also edited a special volume of Nature in honor of Einstein's centenary[6]. Years later, Brecher proposed the speed of light be named "Einstein's constant".[7]
Brecher has held research fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and from the National Research Council of the US National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded an Osher Fellowship[8] by the San Francisco Exploratorium, where he developed several science exhibits which can be seen there today. Brecher has had a longstanding passion for art and many kinds of "physics toys", including spinning tops[9] and kaleidoscopes[10]. He has shared his love of learning science through the use of hands-on experiences at conferences around the world.
Brecher holds multiple patents[13] for his unique kinetic physics toys. His design efforts are currently captured under his "Sirius Enigmas" website, and in articles that use those objects for demonstrations of physics principles.
Asteroid 4242 Brecher, discovered in 1981, was named in honor of Brecher and his wife.[14]
^Kline, Madeleine (September 9, 2017), "Aviva Brecher", Margaret MacVicar Memorial AMITA (Association of MIT Alumnae) Oral History Project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hdl:1721.3/186178
^Brecher, K. (1979), Albert Einstein: 14 March, 1879—18 April, 1955 A guide for the perplexed, vol. 278, Nature, pp. 215–218, doi:10.1038/278215a0
^Brecher, K. (1977), Is the speed of light independent of the velocity of the source, vol. 39, Physical Review Letters, pp. 1051–1054, doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.39.1051
