Rosemary Fowler

Rosemary Fowler (née Brown) (born 1926) is a British physicist who contributed to the discovery of the kaon. She was one of the first women to graduate with first class honours from the University of Bristol.

Early life and education

Fowler's father was a rear admiral. Fowler was one of the first women to gain a first in physics at the University of Bristol in 1947. She was a doctoral researcher in the research group of C. F. Powell, where she met Peter Fowler and worked alongside him on the discovery of the Tau. She worked alongside Minnie van der Merw, a scanner who identified strange particle tracks in a photographic slide. This slide was labelled the "k-track" plate, and is now known to have included the three pion decay mode of a kaon. The Powell laboratory had pioneered the use of emulsion plates to investigate cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere. The plate on which Fowler and der Merw discovered the tau was located in a high-altitude laboratory in Jungfraujoch, Switzerland. C. F. Powell was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery. Fowler never completed her doctorate, but continued to assist her husband whilst she raised their three children.

Select publications

• R. Brown; U. Camerini; P. H. Fowler; H. Muirhead; C. F. Powell; D. M. Ritson (January 1949). "Observations with Electron-Sensitive Plates Exposed to Cosmic Radiation". Nature. 163 (4132): 47–51. Bibcode:1949Natur.163...47B. doi:10.1038/163047A0. ISSN 1476-4687. Wikidata Q60256948.
• R. Brown; U. Camerini; P. H. Fowler; H. Muirhead; C. F. Powell; D. M. Ritson (January 1949). "Observations with Electron-Sensitive Plates Exposed to Cosmic Radiation*: PART 2. FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF UNSTABLE CHARGED PARTICLES, OF MASS ∼ 1,000 me, AND OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR MODE OF DECAY". Nature. 163 (4133): 82–87. Bibcode:1949Natur.163...82B. doi:10.1038/163082A0. ISSN 1476-4687. Wikidata Q60246802.
• Brown, R.H.; Camerini, U.; Fowler, P.H.; Heitler, H.; King, D.T.; Powell, C.F. (1949-07-15). "LXXIX. Nuclear transmutations produced by cosmic-ray particles of great energy .-Part I. Observations with photographic plates exposed at an altitude of 11,000 feet". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 40 (307): 862–881. doi:10.1080/14786444908561408. ISSN 1941-5982.

Personal life

In 1949 Fowler married Peter Fowler. She had three daughters, all of whom studied science at university. Her daughter Mary Fowler went on to become a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

References