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William A. Fowler Papers http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt2d5nb7kj No online items Guide to the Papers of William A. Fowler, 1917-1994 Processed by Nurit Lifshitz, assisted by Charlotte Erwin, Laurence Dupray, Carlo Cossu and Jennifer Stine. Archives California Institute of Technology 1200 East California Blvd. Mail Code 015A-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626) 395-2704 Fax: (626) 793-8756 Email: [email protected] URL: http://archives.caltech.edu © 2003 California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Guide to the Papers of William A. Consult repository 1 Fowler, 1917-1994 Guide to the Papers of William A. Fowler, 1917-1994 Collection number: Consult repository Archives California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California Contact Information: Archives California Institute of Technology 1200 East California Blvd. Mail Code 015A-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626) 395-2704 Fax: (626) 793-8756 Email: [email protected] URL: http://archives.caltech.edu Processed by: Nurit Lifshitz, assisted by Charlotte Erwin, Laurence Dupray, Carlo Cossu and Jennifer Stine Date Completed: June 2000 Encoded by: Francisco J. Medina. Derived from XML/EAD encoded file by the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics as part of a collaborative project (1999) supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. © 2003 California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: William A. Fowler papers, Date (inclusive): 1917-1994 Collection number: Consult repository Creator: Fowler, William A., 1911-1995 Extent: 94 linear feet Repository: California Institute of Technology. Archives. Pasadena, California 91125 Abstract: These papers document the career of William A. Fowler, who served on the physics faculty at California Institute of Technology from 1939 until 1982. Focusing heavily on nuclear physics and astrophysics, the Fowler papers form a rich and important collection for the history of physics, and illustrate the politics and sociology of science in the twentieth century. They also contain substantial material on Caltech's World War II rocket developments, plus documents on Project Vista, a Cold-War strategic defense study headed by Fowler. Language: English. Access The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access. Publication Rights Copyright may not have been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Preferred Citation Guide to the Papers of William A. Consult repository 2 Fowler, 1917-1994 [Identification of item, box and file number], Papers of William A. Fowler. Archives, California Institute of Technology. Acquisition Information The papers were donated to the Caltech Archives by William Fowler in several installments between 1980 and 1986, bringing the collection to approximately 67 linear feet. After Fowler's death in March, 1995, his heirs completed the donation of the papers, nearly doubling the size of the collection with approximately 60 more linear feet. Processing History The pre-1995 papers were roughly sorted into document boxes, plus about 15 linear feet of original binders consisting mainly of Office of Naval Research files. The 1980 accession was processed by Assistant Archivist Susan Trauger in 1980. This material deals mainly with the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NUSAC) and various astronomy committees. A rough inventory for about one third of the pre-1995 collection was prepared by C. Bugé, L. Wood, and M. Williamson. Thanks to a grant from the Friends of the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics, further processing of the complete collection took place from 1998 to 2000. This generous award by the AIP allowed the Caltech Archives to finish processing the pre-1995 donation, process the complete 1995 donation, and finally, merge the two portions into a single integrated collection, making it accessible to the scholarly community. Biography Physicist William A. Fowler received the Nobel Prize in Physics with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1983 for his "theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe." For most of his scientific career, he was the acknowledged leader of the discipline of nuclear astrophysics and the driving force behind the theory of nucleosynthesis that the elements and their isotopes were generated in stellar furnaces. Fowler was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 9, 1911, and grew up in Lima, Ohio. He graduated in engineering physics from Ohio State University in 1933, then moved to the California Institute of Technology, where he began his graduate studies under the supervision of Charles C. Lauritsen at Caltech's Kellogg Radiation Laboratory. He received his PhD in 1936 for his thesis on radioactive elements of low atomic number. Fowler spent his entire scientific career at Caltech, where in 1970 he was named the first Institute Professor of Physics, a position he held until his retirement in 1982. Early nuclear studies at the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory established the basis for quantitative determinations of reaction rates of interest in stellar processes. In the late 1930s reactions in the C-N (carbon-nitrogen) cycle were being studied at Kellogg, but World War II intervened, and the laboratory staff was engaged in defense research throughout the war. Fowler and his colleagues worked on a variety of defense projects, first on the invention of the proximity fuze for anti-aircraft rockets, and later on the development of rocket ordnance for the US navy. For that work, he received the Medal of Merit in 1948. After the war Fowler and his colleagues at Kellogg returned to the field of low-energy light-element nuclear physics, aiming a major fraction of their research at nuclear reactions in stars. Fowler continued his defense work after the war, dealing with the study of strategic nuclear weapons as the scientific director of Project Vista. Fowler's interest in nuclear astrophysics was stimulated by Fred Hoyle's visit to Caltech in the 1950s. Fowler spent his sabbatical year of 1954-55 at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England, where he started a collaboration with Fred Hoyle and with Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, which culminated in their 1957 seminal paper, "Synthesis of the Elements in Stars." Subsequently, Fowler and Hoyle studied the nuclear processes of supernovae and extended their research to dating the synthesis of chemical elements from the abundance of their isotopes—a field of research which later became known as nuclear chronology. In 1967, Fowler, Hoyle, and Robert B. Wagoner produced a comprehensive study regarding the dynamics of expansion of the universe and the resulting nucleosynthesis, known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis. That same year, Fowler's collaboration with Georgeanne Caughlan and Barbara Zimmerman led to the publication of the first of a series of reviews evaluating experimental nuclear reaction rates. This series of reviews continued with a variety of co-authors until 1988 and provided a foundation for the study of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis. Throughout his scientific career, Fowler was also very active in a variety of societies and professional organizations. He served terms as an officer and then as president of the American Physical Society (1976) and was a member of the Governing Board and Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics (1974-1980). He also served on the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation (1968-1974), the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences (1970-1973, 1977-1980), and as member and then chairman of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NUSAC) of the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy (1977-1981). Fowler received many honors in addition to the Nobel Prize. These included the Vetlesen Prize (1973), the National Medal of Science awarded by President Gerald Ford in 1974, the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1978), the Bruce Gold Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1979), and the Legion of Honor awarded by President François Mitterand in 1989. Guide to the Papers of William A. Consult repository 3 Fowler, 1917-1994 Fowler continued his scientific research and his lecturing activities until his death due to kidney failure on March 14, 1995. Scope and Content of Collection The working papers, correspondence, reprints, and biographical material of William Alfred Fowler form the collection known as the Fowler Papers at the California Institute of Technology Archives. The Fowler papers form an exceedingly rich and important collection for the history of physics and astrophysics, as well as for the politics and sociology of science in the twentieth century. Fowler saved a vast amount of material, including documents related to his mentor Charles C. Lauritsen from the 1920s and 1930s at Caltech. Lauritsen destroyed most of his own papers connected with Caltech's World War II rocket project, but Fowler preserved his, giving researchers today a detailed first-hand account of Caltech's intensive involvement in the war effort. A similar level of documentation
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