Ralph Howard Fowler (17.01.1889-28.07.1944) was an English theoretical physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1925). He was born in Roydon. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1911) and worked there from 1914 (from 1932 as professor).
His research concerned statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, quantum theory and astrophysics. He extended the methods of statistical mechanics and applied them to the study of the equilibrium states of an ionised gas at high temperatures; in particular he proposed (1922) a method for calculating statistical integrals. In 1926, starting from the Fermi-Dirac quantum statistics, he concluded that white dwarfs consist of a “degenerate” gas of high density. He was one of the founders of theoretical astrophysics. He extended the theory of phase transitions and collective phenomena in magnets, alloys and solutions. He applied quantum statistics and the theory of ionisation to the study of the state of matter at high temperatures and pressures. In 1928 he explained the phenomenon of cold emission of electrons from metals on the basis of electron tunnelling (the Fowler-Nordheim model).
He founded a school of physicists (P. Dirac, J. Lennard-Jones, R. Paperis, D. Hartree, S. Chandrasekhar and others). J. Adams Prize (1924).