Brian Judd

Dr. Brian Raymond Judd, a resident of the Blakehurst community in Towson, died peacefully on April 8, 2023, at 92 years old. Born on February 13, 1931 in Chelmsford, England to Harry and Edith Judd. Survivors include his wife, Josephine Anne Gridley and brother, Colin Judd.

A lifetime's interest in classical music was engendered by being taught piano from an early age. He attended Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1949, where he read mathematics and physics. He took a year's leave of absence from a research fellowship at Magdalen College (Oxford) in 1957-58 to act as an Instructor at the University of Chicago, where he met his future wife. As a chemist at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, he applied mathematics to the properties of the rare-earth elements, a topic he developed for his book "Operator Techniques in Atomic Spectroscopy" while a Professeur-Associe' at the University of Paris (1962-1964). What no one knew at the time of his research was that one-day rare earth doped materials would play a crucial role in fiber optic communications, and make it possible to produce miniaturized electronic components for everything from laptop computers and mobile phones to hybrid cars and lasers.

He joined the faculty of The Johns Hopkins University in 1966 and acted as Chairman of the Physics Department for six years (1979-1984). His various articles and three more books led to the 1988 Spedding Award (sponsored by Rhone-Poulenc) for rare-earth research. Judd was a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford University.