William A. Fowler | Biography

William A. Fowler was born on 9 August 1911, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to John MacLeod, an accountant, and Jennie Summers (Watson) Fowler. When William was two years old, his family moved to Lima, Ohio, where he attended Horace Mann Grade School and Central High School.

Fowler received his bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1933 and his Ph.D. in nuclear physics at the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) in 1936. Immediately, he was offered a job as research fellow at Kellogg and then, over the next 45 years, was promoted from assistant to full professor. He retired from the California Institute of Technology in 1982 and was named emeritus professor of physics.

Fowler entered Ohio State University in the fall of 1929 intending to major in ceramic engineering. Two years later, however, he switched to engineering physics, a field in which he would earn his bachelor of science.

Upon graduation from Ohio State, Fowler decided to enter the California Institute of Technology for his graduate work. There, he was assigned to assist the director of the W. K. Kellogg Radiation Laboratory, C. C. Lauritsen, whom Fowler credited as being the greatest influence in his life, according to an article in Physics Today. For his doctoral dissertation, Fowler studied the production of radioactive isotopes as the result of bombarding light elements with protons and deuterons. He was granted his Ph.D. in physics summa cum laude in 1936.

Lauritsen was well satisfied with the work of the young Fowler and asked him to stay on as a research fellow in nuclear physics. Three years later, Fowler began his climb up the academic ladder with an appointment as assistant professor at Cal Tech and then, in 1942, with a promotion to associate professor. At this point, World War II interrupted the normal research taking place at Cal Tech. Lauritsen and Fowler were assigned to work in Washington, D.C., on the development of proximity fuses for bombs, shells, and rockets. Later in the war, Fowler became involved in the development of the atomic bomb. He attained the rank of full professor in 1946. For his wartime contributions, Fowler was given the U.S. Government Medal for Merit in 1948.

Scientists have long been intrigued by the question of how the chemical elements are formed in the universe. A major revelation took place in 1939, when physicist Hans Albrecht Bethe at Cornell University and Carl F. Von Weizsäcker at the University of Berlin proposed a mechanism whereby hydrogen is converted into helium in a star. The CN cycle (for the carbon and nitrogen involved in the process) not only explained the conversion of hydrogen to helium, but also showed how energy is released in the process.

The question remained, however, as to how elements heavier than helium can burn, and thus be formed in a star. At one point, George Gamow had suggested a simple and reasonable explanation. The capture of a neutron by one atom could result in the formation of a new atom one atomic number greater than the original. But the problem with Gamow's hypothesis was that it could not be confirmed experimentally. Researchers at Kellogg had demonstrated that no stable mass of 5 or 8 could exist. With these gaps, Gamow's theory became untenable.

By the early 1950s, Fowler had become convinced that the production of heavier elements can take place through the fusion of helium atoms. By 1954, the details of that process were becoming clear. Fowler spent the 1954-55 academic year at Cambridge University working with the eminent astrophysicist Fred Hoyle and the husband and wife team of Geoffrey Burbidge and Margaret Burbidge. Together, the four researchers identified a process whereby helium can be converted to carbon, carbon to iron, and eventually iron to the heavier elements (by neutron capture).

In 1975, Fowler, Hoyle, and the Burbridges published one of the classic papers of modern science, "Synthesis of the Elements in Stars," which often referred to the authors' initials as B₂FH. The ideas presented in the paper were the basis for the Nobel Prize committee's decision to award a share of the 1983 physics prize (along with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar ) to Fowler.

The mechanisms by which elements are formed in the universe continued to dominate Fowler's research agenda for another two decades. Working often with Hoyle, he developed hypotheses about the formation of elements in bodies other than stars, such as the recently discovered radio galaxies. He also became increasingly interested in the study of neutrinos and other astronomical phenomena.

Fowler, was in great demand as a lecturer and visiting scholar. He was been a Fulbright lecturer and Guggenheim Fellow at the University of Cambridge twice, in 1954-55, and again in 1961-62. Fowler also lectured at St. John's College, the University of Washington, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Cambridge. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Chicago, Ohio State University, Denison University, Arizona State University, the University of Liège, and the Observatorie de Paris. Fowler's other honors include the National Medal of Science, which he received in 1974, and the Légion d'Honneur, which he received in 1989. In 1970, he was named Institute Professor of Physics, a position he held until his retirement in 1982.

Fowler was married to the former Ardiane Foy Olmsted on August 24, 1940. They had two daughters, Mary Emily and Martha Summers. After his wife died in 1988, he married again. He died on March 14, 1995, at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.

Fowler died of kidney failure, on March 14, 1995, in Pasadena, California.