E. J. Bowen

Edmund John Bowen

View in Dr Bowen's Room at University College, Oxford, including a photographic portrait of E. J. Bowen held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Born 29 April 1898
Worcester, England
Died 19 November 1980 (aged 82)
Oxford, England
Nationality British
Fields Physical chemistry, photochemistry
Institutions University College, Oxford
Alma mater Balliol College, Oxford
Doctoral advisor Sir Harold Brewer Hartley[1]
Doctoral students Ahsan Ullah Khan[2]
Walter Sidney Metcalf
Known for The Chemical Aspects of Light,[3] fluorescence
Notable awards Davy Medal (1963)
Fellow of the Royal Society[4]

Edmund ("Ted") John Bowen FRS[4] (29 April 1898 – 19 November 1980) was a British physical chemist.[5]

Life

Born in Worcester, England, E. J. Bowen attended the Royal Grammar School Worcester. He won the Brackenbury Scholarship in 1915 and 1916 to the University of Oxford where he studied chemistry. He returned to Balliol College after serving as Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery during World War I[6] and in 1922 became a Fellow of University College, Oxford. At University College he served as Domestic Bursar and as Junior Proctor of the University in 1936.

Created a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1935 for his research into fluorescence,[7] he was awarded the Davy Medal in 1963.[8] He wrote a seminal book called The Chemical Aspects of Light.[3][9] He was President of the Faraday Society and Vice-President of the Chemical Society.

Much of Bowen's research work was carried out at the Trinity and Balliol College Laboratories in Oxford.[10] His 1966 Liversedge Lecture on Fluorescence was based on his life's research. After retirement in June 1965, he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of University College on 6 October 1965.[11] He was one of the longest serving Fellows of that college (43 years as an ordinary Fellow and a total of 59 years). There is a room in the college named after him. He was also a prominent Worcester Old Elizabethan serving on its Committee for many years and organising the Oxford branch of that club.

On 16 May 1931, Bowen, then a University don, attended one of a series of three lectures given by Albert Einstein that year at Rhodes House. After the lecture he obtained one of the blackboards used by Einstein and together with Francis Wylie presented it to the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford where it remains on prominent display to this day.[12]

It is interesting to note that at around five generations back from Bowen on a chemistry genealogy tree one will find Liebig and at around fourteen generations back, Werner Rolfinck.[2] The line of supervisors can be traced directly back as far back as Niccolò Leoniceno in the 15th century.

As well as chemistry, Bowen also had an interest in geology, especially around Ringstead Bay on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.[13] Perisphinctes boweni, an ammonite from the Jurassic period, is named after him.[4]

Bowen lived for most of his working life in Park Town[14] and is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, north of Oxford. Bowen was married to Edith née Moule and they had a son (also a chemist) and a daughter.

Dr Bowen's Room, occupied by E. J. Bowen at University College and now used by Emeritus Fellows, was named in his honour.[15]

Notable co-authors

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Academic Genealogy of the NDSU Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology". North Dakota State University, USA. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Connection from Pietro Roccabonella to E. J. Bowen". Chemistry Tree USA. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bowen, E. J. (1942). The Chemical Aspects of Light. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. (2nd edition, 1946.)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Bell, R. P. (1981). "Edmund John Bowen. 29 April 1898-19 November 1980". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 27: 83–26. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1981.0004. JSTOR 769866.
  5. ↑ Bell, R. P. (2004). Bowen, Edmund John (1898–1980), chemist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press). doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30838. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  6. ↑ "Edmund John Bowen". Lives of the First World War. London: Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  7. ↑ Bowen, E. J. (1964). "Chemiluminescence from Dissolved Oxygen". Nature 201 (4915): 180. doi:10.1038/201180b0.
  8. ↑ "Davy archive winners 1989–1900". UK: Royal Society.
  9. ↑ Bowen, E. J.; Lind, S. C. (1946). "Chemical Aspects of Light". Journal of Physical Chemistry 50 (6): 490. doi:10.1021/j150450a012.
  10. ↑ Williams, Robert J. P.; Chapman, Allan; Rowlinson, John S., eds. (2009). Chemistry at Oxford: A History from 1600 to 2005. UK: RSC Publishing. pp. 132, 139, 146–153, 163, 191, 200, 219, 227, 231, 243. ISBN 978-0-85404-139-8.
  11. ↑ "Dr. E. J. Bowen, F.R.S.". University College Record V (5) (University College Oxford). September 1965. pp. 308–310.
  12. ↑ "Bye-bye blackboard ... from Einstein and others". Oxford: Museum of the History of Science. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  13. ↑ Wright, J. K. (1986). "A new look at the stratigraphy, sedimentology and ammonite fauna of the Corallian Group (Oxfordian) of south Dorset". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 97 (1): 1–21. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(86)80001-3.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Symonds, Ann Spokes (1997). "Families: The Bowens". The Changing Faces of North Oxford: Book One. Robert Boyd Publications. pp. 81–83. ISBN 1-899536-25-6.
  15. ↑ Roth, William (December 2013). "Bowen Portrait Unveiling". University College, Oxford. Retrieved 13 December 2013.

External links