Stephen Brunauer (February 12, 1903 – July 6, 1986) was an American research chemist, government scientist, and university teacher.
[1] He emigrated to the United States in 1921 and attended City College of New York and Columbia University, majoring in English and chemistry.
He pursued graduate studies in chemistry and engineering, earning his master's degree in 1929 from George Washington University, where he was a student of Edward Teller, who later described his confidence in asserting his theories and challenging his teachers.
"[4] He became an American citizen around 1925[5] and began working for the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., in 1928.
He married Esther Delia Caukin in 1931, an expert in international relations who worked for the American Association of University Women and, after 1944, for the U.S. State Department.
[6] His doctoral thesis led to the development of BET theory, based on work he did with Paul H. Emmett and Edward Teller.
[9] The Atomic Energy Commission denied him a security clearance because of his earlier membership in the Young Workers' League, but he continued to work as a government scientist.
[10] He successfully passed several other security reviews that his work required and became chief chemist in the Research and Development Section of the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance.