William Alfred Fowler Oral History Interview

Interviewed by John L. Greenberg, Carol Bugé

Interview Sessions from 1983 to 1986
  • May 13, 1983
  • May 31, 1984
  • October 3, 1986

Abstract

Interview conducted in eight sessions between May 1983 and May 1984 with Willy Fowler, Nobel laureate and Institute Professor of Physics, emeritus. In a career in nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics that spanned more that sixty years, Fowler was primarily concerned with nucleosynthesis–that is, the creation of the heavy elements by the fusion of the nuclei of lighter elements. In 1957, with Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, Fowler coauthored the seminal paper “Synthesis of the Elements in the Stars,” now known as B2FH. In it, they showed that all the elements from carbon to uranium could be produced by nuclear processes in stars starting only with the light elements produced in the Big Bang. In the interview, Fowler discusses his early education as a physicist at Ohio State; his work with Charles C. and Tommy Lauritsen at Caltech’s Kellogg Radiation Laboratory; the history of nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics at Caltech; and the evolution of nucleosynthesis. There are recollections of many of his mentors and colleagues, including Robert A. Millikan, Hans Bethe, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Lauritsens, Fred Hoyle, the Burbidges, Jesse Greenstein, A. G. W. Cameron, Richard P. Feynman, and H. P. Robertson. A 1986 Supplement contains an interview on Fowler’s work for the Naval Bureau of Ordnance and the Manhattan Project during the Second World War.

Archival record in collection guide

PDF version of transcript [3.7 MB]

Preferred Citation

William Alfred Fowler Oral History Interview, interviewed by John L. Greenberg, Carol Bugé, Caltech Archives Oral History Project, May 13, 1983, May 31, 1984, October 3, 1986, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Fowler_W.

Note to Readers

Oral history interviews provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in them are those of the interviewees, who describe events based on their own recollections and from their own perspective. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Caltech Archives and Special Collections or of the California Institute of Technology.