Norman Levi Bowen, 1887-1956

Abstract

Norman Levi Bowen, Research Associate of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and one of the great pioneers in experimental petrology, died in Washington D.C. on 11 September 1956 in his seventieth year. He was born at Kingston, Ontario, on 21 June 1887, the younger son of William Alfred Bowen, a Londoner by birth, who had come to settle in Canada. Bowen attended school in Kingston and in the autumn of 1903 entered Queen’s University, registering in the Faculty of Arts. There he took an honours course in chemistry and mineralogy, graduating with the degree of M.A. in 1907 with the University medals in both subjects. In the same year he entered the School of Mining completing the B.Sc. degree course in 1909 in mineralogy and geology. Among his professors at Queen’s were R. W. Brock, subsequently Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, M. B. Baker and W. Nicol. E. L. Bruce and W. L. Uglow who later achieved distinction in geology were among his contemporaries. During his University career at Kingston he became engaged in field work for the Ontario Bureau of Mines, first in the summer of 1907 with Brock on a geological survey at Larder Lake, and in succeeding field seasons with M. B. Baker at Lake Abitibi (1908) and in the Gowganda Lake area in 1909, working there under the general supervision of A. G. Burrows. The results of his studies in these years appeared in two contributions, the first as a student’s paper in 1909 on diabase and aplite of the cobalt-silver area — which was awarded first prize by the Canadian Mining Institute and the President’s gold medal; the second appeared in 1910 in the Journal of Geology .