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	(1898-04-29)29 April 1898 Worcester, England
Died	Oxford, England
Nationality	British
Fields	Physical chemistry, photochemistry
Institutions	University College, Oxford
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Doctoral advisor	Sir Harold Brewer Hartley
Doctoral students	Ahsan Ullah Khan Walter Sidney Metcalf
Known for	The Chemical Aspects of Light, fluorescence
Notable awards	Davy Medal (1963) Fellow of the Royal Society

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 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, he was awarded the Davy Medal in 1963. He wrote a seminal book called The Chemical Aspects of Light. 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 Balliol-Trinity Laboratories in Oxford. 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. 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.

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. 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. Perisphinctes boweni, an ammonite from the Jurassic period, is named after him.

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, occupied by E. J. Bowen at University College and now used by Emeritus Fellows, 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

• Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood FRS
• Ronald George Wreyford Norrish FRS
• Nevil Vincent Sidgwick FRS
• Sir Harold Warris Thompson FRS

See also

• Ronnie Bell FRS, a physical chemist and Oxford colleague
• John Albery FRS, colleague and successor at University College, Oxford
• Bowen's son, Humphry Bowen, another chemist
• Bowen's grandson, Jonathan Bowen, a computer scientist

External links

• Bowen, E. J. (Edmund John) 1898–1980: Papers, 1921–1980 at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.
• List of publications from Microsoft Academic Search
• Oxford Physical Chemistry: Early days.
• E. J. Bowen books, Open Library.
• Edmund John Bowen photograph by Walter Stoneman (1954) in the National Portrait Gallery, London.