Dr Alan Fowler ForMemRS

Alan Fowler is an American physicist who graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with both bachelor and master of science degrees. He obtained his PhD in applied physics from Harvard University in 1958. After active service in the US Army, Alan joined Raytheon Research in 1953, where he worked until 1956. He moved to IBM Research in 1958, remaining there until his retirement in 1993. Between 1952 and 1993, he focused largely on semiconductor physics and technology.

Alan is primarily known for his work with colleagues that demonstrated conclusively for the first time the two-dimensional nature of electrons at semiconductor interfaces. He also conducted extensive studies of the transport properties of such interfaces. He is a Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society (APS) and the IEEE. He has received prizes for his research from the APS, the IEEE and the Franklin Institute.

Subject groups

  • Astronomy and Physics

    Semi-conductors, Semi-conductors

  • Engineering and Materials Science

    Materials science (incl materials engineering), Engineering, semiconductors

Dr Alan Fowler ForMemRS
Elected 2001