Obituaries
Eugene W. Cowan
1920 – 2010
Eugene W. “Bud” Cowan (PhD ’48), professor of physics, emeritus, passed away on November 4 in Menlo Park, California. He was 90.
Cowan’s research included investigations of high-energy interactions of cosmic rays, air-pollution studies, and studies of the earth’s magnetism.
An innovative instrument builder, Cowan was best known for his perfection, in 1950, of a cloud chamber capable of continuous operation. A cloud chamber makes the tracks of subatomic particles visible, allowing the particles themselves to be identified. The chamber works by causing droplets of vapor to condense along the trail of ions the particle leaves behind as it interacts with air molecules. Previous cloud chambers had required a sudden, large drop in chamber pressure in order for this condensation to occur, followed by a rest period during which no observations could be made. Cowan’s innovation eliminated the need for the pressure decrease and thus eliminated the rest period.
Cowan was particularly proud of his work in the early 1950s on the Xi “cascade” particle, the first doubly strange baryon. His cloud-chamber image clearly confirmed the existence of the particle and provided important input that led to the subsequent development of the quark model. His later work focused on the dynamics of the mechanism that generates the earth’s magnetic field.
Cowan was born in 1920 in Ree Heights, South Dakota. After receiving his BS at the University of Missouri and his SM at MIT, where he was an instructor in the radar school and at the Radiation Laboratory, he came to Caltech in 1945. Cowan earned his doctorate under cosmic-ray researcher and Nobel laureate Carl Anderson (BS ’27, PhD ’30). He became a research fellow in 1948, an assistant professor in 1950, and an associate professor in 1954. In 1961 he was promoted to professor of physics, and he became an emeritus professor in 1986.
Cowan was awarded four patents, including one for his innovative cloud chamber. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Long recognized for the quality of his teaching, Cowan received the 1986 Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT) award for teaching excellence for his course on classical electromagnetism.
Says his son, Glen, a particle physicist at Royal Holloway, University of London, “My father truly enjoyed being part of the Caltech community. I believe he was there almost every day from 1945 to 2008. Maybe that’s some kind of record.”An avid hiker in the San Gabriel Mountains, he “walked the two and a half miles to and from work for probably more than 50 years, and for much of that time also went daily to the Caltech pool and gym.” In 2008, Cowan and his wife, Thelma, moved from Pasadena to Menlo Park, California, to be near their daughter,Tina, a geneticist at Stanford University.
Cowan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Thelma Rasmussen Cowan; daughter Tina Cowan Hiltbrand and son Glen Cowan; and grandchildren David and Karin Hiltbrand. —KS
Bud Cowan with one of his cloud chambers—the flat panel that looks like a tabletop—circa 1959. Photo courtesy of Glen Cowan.
