William A. Fowler

William Alfred Fowler was an American astrophysicist best known for his work on the nuclear reactions that occur inside stars. He was a co-author, with Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge and Fred Hoyle, of the 1957 paper known as B2FH, which classified the nuclear processes responsible for producing the chemical elements in stellar interiors. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions important in forming the chemical elements found throughout the universe. Fowler earned his doctorate in nuclear physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1936, remained there as a research fellow and later professor from 1946 onward, and directed the university's W. K. Kellogg Radiation Laboratory. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1938, served as president of the American Physical Society in 1976, and received the National Medal of Science in 1974 and the Eddington Medal in 1978.