Fowler, William Alfred

Fowler, William Alfred, 1911–95, American nuclear astrophysicist, b. Pittsburgh. While a professor at the California Institute of Technology, Fowler studied how chemical elements are formed in nuclear reactions, especially in the evolution of stars. For his work in this area he shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Fowler also studied the radio emissions of quasars and the functioning of subatomic particles such as neutrinos.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Physics: Biographies