98-Year-Old Physicist Honored 75 Years After Discovery
Before she was even in her mid-20s, Rosemary Fowler had done more for particle physics than most scientists could ever dream of.
In 1948, she discovered something called the kaon particle while she was studying for a doctorate at the University of Bristol.
Her discovery is said to have led to a revolution in particle physics — including the discovery of quarks years later. But just one year after her discovery, she left university without finishing her PhD when she got married and started a family with another physicist, Peter Fowler.
Now, 75 years later, she has been awarded an honorary doctorate by her old university.
Fowler, who is now 98 years old, said she felt very honored, but added: "I haven't done anything since to deserve special respect."
She did her research in the 1940s under the supervision of a man named Cecil Powell, and her work contributed to his award of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1950.
After making her discovery, she said: "I knew at once that it was new and would be very important. We were seeing things that hadn't been seen before — that's what research in particle physics was. It was very exciting."
However, life in Britain after World War II wasn't always easy, and she chose to stop her studies and raise her three children, who all went on to work in science.
She was presented with the honorary doctorate by the head of the university, Paul Nurse, who said that her discovery had added to our understanding of the universe.
Fowler was born in 1926, and was the only girl in her year at school to go to university. As a child, she was very good at math and science, but she wasn't so good at writing, which she found difficult.
