William D. Brewer was born 1943 in the USA. Educated in Chemistry and Mathematics at Univ. Oregon (Eugene) and Univ. California (Berkeley). Postdoctoral work in physics at the Freie Universität Berlin and in Orsay, France. Habilitation in experimental physics at the FU Berlin, later University Professor there. Research in nuclear and solid-state physics, magnetism on surfaces and in thin films. Visiting scientist at Paris-Sud, IBM Yorktown Heights, Stanford, CRTBT Grenoble, KU Leuven, Univ. São Paulo, CBPF - Rio de Janeiro. Translations of over 20 scientific works (German to English), work for the Einstein Papers Project. Co-author of the book ＂Jayme Tiomno - A Life for Science, a Life for Brazil＂ in the Springer Biographies series (2020).