Brueckner was born in Minneapolis on March 19, 1924. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in mathematics from the
University of Minnesota in 1945 and 1947 and a Ph.D. in physics from the
University of California, Berkeley, in 1950, supervised by
Robert Serber. After completing his Ph.D. he joined the physics faculty at
Indiana University (1951–1955) and then at the
University of Pennsylvania (1956–1959). In 1959, Brueckner was recruited by
Roger Revelle to come to
University of California, San Diego, where he became one of the founders of the Department of Physics. Brueckner was instrumental in recruiting many faculty members to the new campus, as well as setting up the curriculum for the
School of Science and Engineering. Over the course of his career at UC San Diego, Brueckner served as Director of the Institute of Radiation Physics and Aerodynamics and, later, Director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences. In 1955, he proved the
linked-cluster theorem (up to 4th order) for summing a series of
Feynman diagrams. The relevance and correctness of RPA were heavily debated at the time. This was a seminal result, as it is often considered to be the first major accomplishment of modern quantum many-particle theory and has been an inspiration for the entire field. ==Awards==