Ralph Fowler | |
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| Born | Ralph Howard Fowler (1889-01-17)17 January 1889 |
| Died | 28 July 1944(1944-07-28) (aged 55) Trumpington, England, UK |
| Education | Winchester College |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingRuth |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge (1919–44) |
| Academic advisors | Archibald Vivian Hill |
| Doctoral students |
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| Other notable students | |
Sir Ralph Howard Fowler (17 January 1889 – 28 July 1944) was a Britishtheoretical physicist.
Ralph Howard Fowler was born on 17 January 1889 inRoydon, England, the son of Howard Fowler fromBurnham-on-Sea, and Frances Eva Dewhurst, the daughter of a cotton merchant fromManchester.[4]
After attendingWinchester College, Fowler won a scholarship toTrinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics and became aWrangler in Part II of theMathematical Tripos.
InWorld War I, Fowler obtained a commission in theRoyal Marine Artillery and was seriously wounded in his shoulder in theGallipoli campaign. The wound enabled his friendArchibald Hill to use his talents properly. As Hill's second in command he worked on anti-aircraft ballistics in theAnti-Aircraft Experimental Section ofHMSExcellent onWhale Island. He made a major contribution on theaerodynamics of spinning shells. He was awarded theOBE in 1918.[5]
In 1919, Fowler returned to Trinity College, where he became College Lecturer in Mathematics the following year.
Fowler worked onthermodynamics andstatistical mechanics, bringing a new approach to physical chemistry. WithArthur Milne, a comrade during the war, he wrote a seminal work onstellar spectra, temperatures, and pressures. In 1925, he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society.[1] He became research supervisor toPaul Dirac and, in 1926, worked with him on the statistical mechanics ofwhite dwarf stars.
In 1927, Fowler was one of the participants of the fifthSolvay Conference on Physics that took place at the International Solvay Institute for Physics in Belgium. The following year, he published (withLothar Nordheim) a seminal paper that explained the physical phenomenon now known asfield electron emission, and helped to establish the validity of modern electronband theory. In 1931, he was the first to formulate and label thezeroth law of thermodynamics.[6] The following year, he was appointedJohn Humphrey Plummer Professor of Mathematical Physics in theCavendish Laboratory. In 1933, he worked withJohn Bernal to develop a model for the structure of water and ice known as theice rules.[7]
In 1939, whenWorld War II began, he resumed his work with the Ordnance Board, despite poor health, and was chosen for scientific liaison with Canada and the United States. He knew America well, having visiting professorships atPrinceton University and theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. For this liaison work, he was knighted in 1942 (seeMAUD Committee). He returned to Britain later in the war and worked for the Ordnance Board and the Admiralty up until a few weeks before his death in 1944.
Fifteen Fellows of the Royal Society and three Nobel Laureates (Chandrasekhar, Dirac, and Mott) were supervised by Fowler between 1922 and 1939. In addition to Milne, he worked withSir Arthur Eddington,Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar,Paul Dirac,Homi J. Bhabha, andSir William McCrea. It was Fowler who introduced Dirac to quantum theory in 1923. Fowler also put Dirac andWerner Heisenberg in touch with each other throughNiels Bohr. At Cambridge, he supervised the doctoral studies of 64 students, includingJohn Lennard-Jones,Paul Dirac, andGarrett Birkhoff.
Fowler died on 28 July 1944 inTrumpington at the age of 55.
TheFowler Islands inCrystal Sound on the Antarctic Peninsula were named by theUK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in his honour.
Fowler was a keen amateurcricketer who played as awicket-keeper. He played forNorfolk in theMinor Counties Championship in 1908 and 1909.[8]
In 1921, Fowler married Eileen Mary (1901–1930), the only daughter ofErnest Rutherford. They had four children; two sons and two daughters. Eileen died after the birth of their last child,Ruth Fowler Edwards, a geneticist and wife ofRobert G. (Bob) Edwards, the "father" ofin vitro fertilisation and 2010Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate. One of his grandchildren isMary Fowler, a geophysicist and the sixth Master (2012–2020) ofDarwin College, Cambridge.[9]
