Bradford Howland

Bradford Howland died on May 5, 2025, at age 97 in Madison, Wisconsin. He was born on October 7, 1927, in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Warren and Elizabeth Howland. Brad graduated from Purdue University in 1945 at the age of 17 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He received a Master’s Degree from Harvard and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career working for the Naval Research Lab, designing circuits for electrical experiments on V2 rockets, which had been captured from the Germans in World War 2. Brad went on to work for more than 30 years at the famed Research Laboratory in Electronics, which was housed in Building 20 at MIT, where he contributed to research on neurophysiology.

Brad also worked for Lincoln Laboratories between 1957 and 1975; while there, he did classified work on optics for satellites. Starting in the 1960s, Brad moved from electrical engineering to optical engineering. He collaborated with his younger brother, Howard, a biologist at Cornell University, in developing devices to measure the vision of infants and animals. Brad moved to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1987. In his retirement, he wrote a series of short stories about life at the Research Lab in Electronics and eventually published them as Building 20 Stories.

A prolific inventor, Brad held 20 patents in optics, electronics, and mechanics, but he is most famous for an idea he neither patented nor published: the “Howland circuit”. This circuit maintains a constant electric current flow, regardless of changes in the connected load. It is useful in equipment that requires precise current control, such as in some medical imaging systems.

Immediate survivors include his brother, Howard C. Howland (Monica) of Ithaca, NY, and nephews, Frank Howland (Elizabeth Justice), Jacob Howland (Jennifer), and David Howland (Victoria Banyard), eight great-nephews and nieces, and four great-great-nieces and nephews.

We welcome you to share your thoughts and memories on Bradford's tribute wall.

Cress Funeral & Cremation Service

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