Professional Service
Brewer was instrumental in founding the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council Committee on High-Temperature Chemistry, as well as organizing the first Gordon Research Conference on High-Temperature Chemistry in 1960. At the request of the Atomic Energy Commission and its successors, the Energy Research and Development Administration, and the Department of Energy, Brewer worked on numerous committees, including the DOE Council for Materials Sciences and the DOE Selection Committee for the Fermi Award.
He also maintained close ties with organizations that represented the international scientific community, including the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Brewer sat on the editorial advisory boards of many respected scholarly journals and academic monograph series, including the Journal of Physical Chemistry Solids (1956–1992), Progress in Organic Chemistry (1958–1969), the Journal of Chemistry Physics (associate editor, 1959–1963), Progress in Inorganic Chemistry (1967–2005), Progress in Solid State Chemistry (1967–1996), High Temperature Science (founder, 1968–2005), the Journal of Chemistry Thermodynamics (1969–1978), the Journal of Solid State Chemistry (1969–1984), the Journal of the Electrochemical Society (divisional editor, 1976–1984), the Journal of Chemical Engineering Data, the Journal of Physical Chemistry Ref. Data (1978–1981, 1989–1992), the Metals Handbook (co-editor, 1983), the Princeton Series in the Physico-Chemical Sciences for Technology (co-editor, 1983–2005), and the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (1991).
In addition, Brewer single-handedly compiled and maintained Part II of the Bibliography on the High-Temperature Chemistry and Physics of Materials.
Besides his distinguished career as a chemist and educator, Brewer was also an avid gardener who held a keen interest in native California plant life. In 1965, he became one of the founding members of the California Native Plant Society. A species of manzanita was named after him to honor his contribution to the study and preservation of California's native flora: Arctostaphylos uva-ursi leo-breweri, also referred to as "Leo Brewer's Manzanita."
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