Howard Edward Brandt (January 2, 1939, in Emerado, North Dakota – April 13, 2014) was a physicist with the United States Army Research Laboratory in Maryland, and was notable for his work in general relativity and quantum field theory and quantum information.

[2][1] In 1958, he graduated from Queen Anne High School, Seattle, Washington.

He received his BS in physics from MIT as a National Sloan Scholar, 1962.

He obtained his PhD at the University of Washington with a thesis entitled Sixth Order Charge Renormalization Constant, under Marshall Baker, 1970, calculating the divergent part of the inverse charge renormalization constant in quantum electrodynamics to sixth order in perturbation theory in Feynman gauge to verify the gauge invariance of the calculation.

[1] From 1986 to 1995, he technically directed three major programs for the Office of Innovative Science and Technology of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, involving nationwide research on high-power microwave source development, sensors for interactive discrimination, and electromagnetic missiles and directed energy concepts.