James E. Brau (born 1946) is an American physicist at the University of Oregon (UO) who conducts research on elementary particles and fields. He founded the Oregon experimental high energy physics group in 1988 and served as director of the UO Center for High Energy Physics from 1997 to 2016. Prior to joining the Oregon faculty, he served in the Air Force and held positions at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the University of Tennessee. He is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and also the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006 he was appointed the Philip H. Knight Professor of Natural Science, an endowed professorship. Early life and education James Edward Brau, son of Rose and James Ernest Brau, was born in 1946 in Tacoma, Washington, in the U.S. He was graduated in 1965 from Lincoln High School in Tacoma. Brau received an appointment from Rep. Thor Tollefson to the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), where he double-majored in physics and mathematics, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1969. He earned a Scientiæ Magister degree in physics in 1970 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) working with advisor Irwin A. Pless. While in the Air Force he took graduate classes at the University of New Mexico in 1972–1973. Based on data collected at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory with research advisor Richard K. Yamamoto, in January 1978 he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics at MIT. He was supported by a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship from 1969 to 1970 and 1974–77. Brau married in 1969 and has two adult sons and four grandchildren. Career and research Brau served in the Guidance Test Directorate at Holloman Air Force Base in 1970–1971, and in the Theoretical Branch of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base during 1971–1974, working with Gregory Canavan. At Kirtland Brau carried out theoretical studies of laser-target interactions, electromagnetic pulse, and charged particle beams. He served as chief of the General Physics Group in 1973–1974, and resigned his Air Force commission in 1974 as a captain. He was a research associate at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in the bubble chamber experimental research group from 1978 to 1982. There he was responsible for the hybrid bubble chamber facility's lead glass detector, in collaboration with colleagues from Duke University, Florida State University and