Edmund ("Ted") John Bowen FRS[1] (29 April 1898 – 19 November 1980) was a British physical chemist.[5][6]
Early life and wartime career
E. J. Bowen was the eldest of four born to Edmund Riley Bowen and Lilias Bowen (née Kamester) in 1898 in Worcester, England.[7] He attended the Royal Grammar School Worcester.[7]
In 1922, Bowen 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.[7]
Much of Bowen's research work was carried out at the Balliol-Trinity Laboratories in Oxford.[12][13] He was an accomplished glass blower for his chemical apparatus[1] and even produced artworks in glass.[14] 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.[15] 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;[16][17] 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.[18]
Bowen lived for most of his working life in Park Town[24] 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. He died on 19 November 1980 after a short illness.[7]
The room at University College that Bowen used was subsequently named the 'Bowen room'.[25] It was used by Emeritus Fellows of the college and later occupied by Prof. Ruth Chang.[26] Bowen's papers (1931–1980) are held by the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.[27][28]
^"Academic Genealogy of the NDSU Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology" (PDF). North Dakota State University, USA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 December 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
^ a bBowen, E. J. (1942). The Chemical Aspects of Light. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. (2nd edition, 1946.)
^ a bBell, R. P. (2004). "Bowen, Edmund John (1898–1980), chemist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30838. Retrieved 10 June 2014. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^"Obituary: E. J. Bowen". The Times. 22 November 1980.
^ a b c d e fBell, Ronald Percy (1981). "Edmund John Bowen". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 27: 83–101. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1981.0004. ISSN 0080-4606.
^Bowen, E. J. (1964). "Chemiluminescence from Dissolved Oxygen". Nature. 201 (4915): 180. Bibcode:1964Natur.201..180B. doi:10.1038/201180b0.
^"Davy archive winners 1989–1900". UK: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 31 July 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
^Bowen, E. J.; Lind, S. C. (1946). "Chemical Aspects of Light". Journal of Physical Chemistry. 50 (6): 490. doi:10.1021/j150450a012.
^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.
^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. Bibcode:1986PrGA...97....1W. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(86)80001-3.
^"Fossil specimen : OUM J.04562 – Holotype". GB3D Type Fossils. UK. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
^"Perisphinctes". www.geologypage.com. Geology Page. 21 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
^"Ammonite / Perisphinctes boweni / France". Dave's Rock Shop. Archived from the original on 17 December 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
^Czerkaszyn, Danielle (12 August 2021). "Solving a Celestial Mystery: The Sun, Earth and Moon Model". More than a Dodo. Museum of Natural HistoryUniversity of Oxford. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
^ a b cSymonds, Ann Spokes (1997). "Families: The Bowens". The Changing Faces of North Oxford: Book One. Robert Boyd Publications. pp. 81–83. ISBN 978-1-899536-25-2.
^Roth, William (December 2013). "Bowen Portrait Unveiling". Archive.org. UK: University College, Oxford. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.