Lennox Lauchlan Cowie FRS (born 18 October 1950, Jedburgh, Scotland) is a British astronomer, and professor at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii.

Biography

In 1970, Cowie graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc with First Class Honours. He then graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D in theoretical physics in 1976. As a post-doc, he was at Princeton University, where he became an associate professor in 1979. In 1980, he was a Fairchild Scholar at Caltech. Beginning in 1980, he was a professor at MIT and from 1983 at the Space Telescope Science Institute. In 1984, Cowie became a professor at Johns Hopkins University and then in 1986 a professor at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, where he was also associate director 1986 to 1997. Cowie's research deals with the dynamics of interstellar and intergalactic gas. At the University of Hawaii, he investigated, with the telescope on

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea ( or ; ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the highest point in the state of Hawaii and second-highest peak of an island on Earth. The peak is ...

and with the Hubble Space Telescope, the oldest stars and galaxies in the universe and their formation and early development.

Awards and honours

In 1984, Cowie won the Harvard University Bok Prize and in 1985 the

Helen B. Warner Prize The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer (aged less than 36, or within 8 years of the award of their PhD) for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical ...

from the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

in 1988, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2004. He was awarded the 2009 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. He was elected a Legacy Fellow of the

in 2020.

References

External links

Cowie Homepage at I.F.A., U. of HawaiiUH Astronomer Lennox Cowie Speaks on the Birth of Stars and Galaxies, Sept 14. 2004
* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=5HwRHAAACAAJ&q=Lennox+Cowie The role of cloud evaporation in interstellar gas dynamics {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowie, Lennox 1950 births Living people Scottish astronomers Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Harvard University alumni University of Hawaiʻi faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics