E. J. Bowen

Edmund John Bowen
Ted Bowen in academic dress, Oxford, 1977.jpg
Ted Bowen in DSc academic dress, Oxford (1977)
Born(1898-04-29)29 April 1898
Worcester, England
Died19 November 1980(1980-11-19) (aged 82)
Oxford, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Known forThe Chemical Aspects of Light, fluorescence
AwardsFellow of the Royal Society (1935)
Davy Medal (1963)
Liversidge Award (1965/66)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysical chemistry, photochemistry
InstitutionsUniversity College, Oxford
Doctoral advisorSir Harold Brewer Hartley
Doctoral studentsWalter Metcalf

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

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. In 1922, he became a Fellow in Chemistry of University College, Oxford, succeeding R. B. Bourdillon, who was briefly Fellow in Chemistry at the College from 1919 to 1921, but who subsequently changed his field of interest from chemistry to medicine. Bowen also served as Domestic Bursar of University College and as Junior Proctor of Oxford University in 1936.

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

Much of Bowen's research work was carried out at the Balliol-Trinity Laboratories in Oxford. He was an accomplished glass blower for his chemical apparatus and even produced artworks in glass. His 1966 Liversidge 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. 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.

During May 1931, Bowen, then a University don, attended a series of three lectures given by Albert Einstein at Rhodes House in Oxford. After the second lecture on 16 May, he helped rescue the blackboard used by Einstein; Sir Francis Wylie (Warden of Rhodes House) formally presented it to the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford where it remains on prominent display to this day.

At around five generations back from Bowen on a chemistry genealogy tree one will find Liebig and at around fourteen generations back, Werner Rolfinck. 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 on the south coast of England. Perisphinctes boweni, an ammonite from the Jurassic period, is named after him. Bowen was involved with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and produced a scale model of the sun, earth, and moon, for the upper galleries in the museum.

Bowen lived for most of his working life in Park Town 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

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

Dr Bowen's Room, occupied by E. J. Bowen at University College and used by Emeritus Fellows, now occupied by Prof. Ruth Chang, was named in his honour. Bowen's papers (1931–1980) are held by the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.

Notable co-authors

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-02-16 06:58 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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