John M. Cowley (18 February 1923-18 May 2004), was a Regents professor at Arizona State University. The John M. Cowley Center for High-Resolution Electron Microcospy at Arizona State is named in his honor. (The following messages are from Hideki Ichinose and David J. Smith, Journal of Electron Microscopy,54(3):149 (2005)) John Cowley was an extraordinarily productive scientist over more than five decades. He made pioneering contributions in the fields of electron microscopy, diffraction and crystallography, all of which brought him widespread recognition. He received the highest awards of the International Union of Crystallography, the Electron Microscopy Society of America and the American Crystallographic Society, and he was honored by election to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science, The Royal Society of London, and the American Physical Society. His monograph Diffraction Physics remains the standard reference in the field. His ideas, enthusiasm and basic understanding of electron optics and diffraction phenomena provided a valued source of leadership to many generations of students and co-workers, and he was universally admired by his peers and colleagues as a great and inspiring scientist.
