Mary Fowler

Christine Mary Rutherford Fowler, (born 1950) is a British geophysicist and academic. From 2012 to 2020, she served as the Master of Darwin College, Cambridge. She was previously a lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, rising to become Dean of its Faculty of Science.

Early life and education Fowler was born in 1950 to Rosemary and Peter Fowler. She comes from a family of eminent scientists. A great-grandfather was Ernest Rutherford, the 'father of nuclear physics', her grandfather, Rutherford's son-in-law, was the mathematical physicist Ralph H. Fowler, and her mother Rosemary discovered the kaon, or K meson particle, in 1948.

She studied mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1972. In 1972 she joined Darwin College, Cambridge to undertake post-graduate studies in geophysics, completing her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1976. Her doctoral thesis was titled "Seismic Studies of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge".

Academic career From 1977 to 1978, Fowler was a Royal Society European Fellow at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. She was an assistant professor from 1982 to 1983, before returning to her research associate position. Between 2002 and 2008, she was head of the Department of Earth Sciences.

Personal life In 1975, Fowler married Euan Nisbet, now a professor of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway. They met at Darwin College, Cambridge while students. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS), a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS), and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (FRCGS). and by the University of Edinburgh.

Selected works