Clarence Max Fowler (November 26, 1918 – February 27, 2006) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who worked at Los Alamos between 1952 and 1996. His main contribution was on

explosively pumped flux compression generator An explosively pumped flux compression generator (EPFCG) is a device used to generate a high-power electromagnetic pulse by compressing magnetic flux using high explosive. An EPFCG only ever generates a single pulse as the device is physically d ...

Career

From 1945 to 1952, Clarence "Max" Fowler did research, successively, at the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

, the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and

Kansas State College Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

. He began work for the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

in 1952, retiring in 1996. During this period Fowler became the highest Western authority on the research and application of

s. (The research of the Soviet physicist

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...

Sarov Sarov (russian: Саро́в) is a closed town in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It was known as Gorkiy-130 (Горький-130) and Arzamas-16 (), after a (somewhat) nearby town of Arzamas,SarovLabsCreation of Nuclear Center Arzamas-16/ref ...

was more advanced, but for a long time the whole field of megagauss research was covered by military secrecy). In those years, mega-gauss technologies were being applied for the first time in a series of experimental devices, such as

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fi ...

s, implosion foils, electromagnetic beam accelerators and the

railgun A railgun or rail gun is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the projectile's high ...

. Fowler also used these generators in order to study the response of several substances to ultra-strong magnetic fields, and among the materials that were investigated were superconductors that operated at the temperature of liquid nitrogen (such as the

Yttrium barium copper oxide Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is a family of crystalline chemical compounds that display high-temperature superconductivity; it includes the first material ever discovered to become superconducting above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen ...

compound).

Founding member of the "International Megagauss Conferences"

Clarence Fowler was the principal promoter of the first International Megagauss Conference. The first of these was held in

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

(1965). The Megagauss conferences were the principal forum where international scientists could present some of their theories and achievements in generating ultra-strong magnetic fields and their applications. Clarence Fowler and his group were the authors of the first paper presented at the first conference in Frascati. After the first, there were nine further conferences (the last was Megagauss-X, held in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in 2004), in each of these meetings Clarence Fowler and his wife Janet were active participants.

Foundation of NHMFL Consortium

Because of the successful research done by his group on the effects of ultra-intense magnetic fields on many materials and their mutual interaction,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

State and

decided to join their efforts to found the

National High Magnetic Field Laboratory The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) is a facility at Florida State University, the University of Florida, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, that performs magnetic field research in physics, biology, bioengineering ...

Publications

Clarence Fowler wrote more than 250 scientific papers, always about topics related to ultra-intense magnetic fields.

Death

Clarence "Max" Fowler died on February 27, 2006, at his home, after a brief battle against

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. He was 87 years old.

References

External links

Obituary Notice by Physics Today

it details many aspects of several types of "electromagnetic bombs" and "elettromagnetic weapons" {{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Clarence Max Deaths from cancer in New Mexico Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel American nuclear physicists 20th-century American physicists 2006 deaths 1918 births