E. J. Bowen

Edmund John Bowen FRS (April 29, 1898 – November 19, 1980) was a British chemist. Born in Worcester, E. J. Bowen attended the Royal Grammar School Worcester. He won the Brackenbury Scholarship in 1915 and 1916 to Oxford University where he studied chemistry. He returned to Balliol College after serving 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.^[1] He wrote a famous book called The Chemical Aspects of Light.^[2][3] He was President of the Faraday Society and Vice-President of the Chemical Society.

Most of Bowen's work was carried out at the Trinity and Balliol College Laboratories. His 1966 Liversedge Lecture on Fluorescence was based on his life's research. On retirement he became an Honorary Fellow of University College and 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 organizing the Oxford branch of that club.

On 16 May 1931 Bowen, then a University don, attended one of a series of three lectures given by Albert Einstein that year at Rhodes House. After the lecture he obtained one of the blackboards used by Einstein and together with Francis Wylie presented it to the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford where it remains on prominent display to this day.

It is interesting to note that at five generations of supervisor back from Bowen one will find Bunsen and at ten generations back, Lavoisier. Bowen lived for most of his working life in Park Town^[4] and is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, north of Oxford.

See also

• Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, a contemporary Oxford physical chemist
• Bowen's son, Humphry Bowen, another chemist^[4]
• Bowen's grandson, Jonathan Bowen, a computer scientist^[4]
• His successor at University College, John Albery

References

1. ^ Davy archive winners 1989–1900, Royal Society, UK.
2. ^ Bowen, E. J., The Chemical Aspects of Light. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1942. 2nd edition, 1946.
3. ^ Bowen, E. J. and Lind, S. C., Chemical Aspects of Light. The Journal of Physical Chemistry, 50(6), page 490, 1946. doi:10.1021/j150450a012
4. ^ ^{a b c} Symonds, Ann Spokes. "Families: The Bowens". The Changing Faces of North Oxford: Book One. Robert Boyd Publications. pp. 81–83. ISBN 1 899536 25 6. 

External links

• Bowen, E. J. (Edmund John) 1898–1980: Papers, 1921–1980 at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.
• Oxford Physical Chemistry: Early days.
• Chemiluminescence from Dissolved Oxygen, by E. J. Bowen, Nature, 201:180, 11 January 1964.
• E. J. Bowen books, Open Library.

Persondata
Name	Bowen, Edmund John
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 29, 1898
Place of birth
Date of death	November 19, 1980
Place of death