Clyde Cowan (1936 Jun)

Nobel Prize in Physics
Clyde L. Cowan, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1995.  He along with Dr. Frederick Reines succeeded in a feat considered to border on the impossible.  Together they discovered the neutrino. A neutrino can pass right through the entire earth without being deflected or absorbed.  There are three varieties of neutrinos that make nature’s twelve basic particles of matter.  The search for these sub atomic particles has been one of the great scientific quests of the 20th century.  That quest seeks to answer such fundamental philosophical and physical questions as to how the universe was formed.  Last fall, research in Europe seem to show that neutrinos could travel faster than light, which would be a major challenge to Einstein’s theory of relativity.  When his family moved to St. Louis, he began his education at Roosevelt high school.  During his years at RHS, he was on the Bwana Staff, a member of the glee club and A Cappella Choir.  After graduating at the age of 16 he attended the Missouri school of mines and metallurgy now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri.  He graduated in 1940 with a bachelor of science in chemical engineering.

When the U.S. entered World War II, Clyde joined the Army as a 2nd a second Lieutenant and was sent to Gen. Eisenhower’s Eighth Air Force Station in London.  Clyde met his future wife, Betty Eleanor Dunham and they were married in Woodford, England.  He earned a bronze star for the meritorious operations with the Royal Air Force. He left active duty in 1946.  He returned to St. Louis, enrolled at Washington University, where he earned a Master’s degree and his PH D. in physics in 1949.  He then joined the staff of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico, where he met Frederick Reine’s.

The Nobel committee said “detecting the neutrino was a long awaited discovery.  For nearly 25 years, physicists had been looking for someone to accomplish this feat “.  Nearly 40 years after his discovery, his work was honored with the 1995 Nobel prize in physics.  The Nobel prize is not given posthumously, but his partner, Dr. Fred Rines, did receive the award in both of their names.

Clyde began his teaching career in 1957 as a professor of physics at George Washington University in Washington, DC.  The following year he joined the faculty of the Catholic University of America a post he held until the end of his life.  Clyde and Betty had ten children, seven of whom died in infancy.  He also had two adopted children. Clyde’s wife died at the age of 90.  Clyde died at the age of 54 in 1974.

For additional information you may Google his name. Also see Roosevelt Today, March 2012.

DOB: Dec 06, 1919 Detroit, MI DOD: May 24, 1974 Bethesda, MD Age 54