The Quest for the Origin of the Elements

Creator

William A. Fowler

Files

Description

(This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1986-1987).

A Nobel laureate, Dr. Fowler is Institute Professor of Physics emeritus at California Institute of Technology. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dr. Fowler received the Ph.D. degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology with a dissertation on "Radioactive Elements of Low AtomicN umber." He taught at the California Institute of Technology from 1936-1982, and held numerous named lectureships, including a Fulbright lectureship at Cambridge University. Dr. Fowler has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a recipient of the USA Medal for Merit, the NASA Apollo Achievement Award, the National Medal of Science, and the Tom W. Bonner Prize of the America! Physical Society. He has received numerous honorary degrees, most recently from Georgetown University (1986). In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for "theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe." Dr. Fowler has had a long history of service to the scientific community. He has chaired the Physics Section of NAS, the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Physical Sciences, AMPS; he has served as president of the American Physical Society and is a founding member of the Planetary Society and the Society for Scientific Exploration.

His Work Dr. Fowler's research has been in nuclear forces and reaction rates; nuclear spectroscopy; the structure of light nuclei; nuclear astrophysics, thermonuclear sources of stellar energy and element synthesis in stars and supernovae; supernova models; isotopic anomalie in meteorites and the origin of the solar system; nucleocosmochronology; and the study of general relativistic effects in quasar and pulsar models.

His Lecture March 7, 1987: "The Quest for the Origin of the Elements"

Keywords

Astrophysics

Creation Date

March 7, 1987

Recommended Citation

Fowler, William A., "The Quest for the Origin of the Elements" (1987). DSLS 1986-1987. 3.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/dsls_1986_1987/3