William Alfred Fowler was an American nuclear physicist and astrophysicist. He and Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar were the joint winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics 1983. Fowler won the Nobel Prize for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but grew up in Lima, Ohio after his father moved to the latter city after being transferred. Right from his time at high school, he displayed an aptitude for the sciences and engineering. He took admission at the Ohio State University with the intention to study ceramic engineering but his growing interest in physics made him change his mind and he graduated in engineering physics. Subsequently, he studied at the elite California Institute of Technology, from where he was awarded his Ph.D. and was associated with the institute for the major part of his academic career. He served as an assistant professor and then as a full professor at the California Institute of Technology and also served the army in a non military role during the Second World War.
