B. V. Bowden

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(Bertram) Vivian Bowden, Baron Bowden of Chesterfield (January 18, 1910 - July 28, 1989) was a English scientist and educationist, particularly associated with the development of UMIST as a successful university.

Life

Born, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, he graduated in natural sciences from Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1931), taking his Ph.D. in nuclear physics. From 1934-1935 he was sponsored by ICI to undertake research at the University of Amsterdam.

After a period in teaching, in 1940 he was conscripted to the Telecommunications Research Establishment to work on radar. From 1943, he continued his work at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, establishing himself as an able and effective administrator. From the end of World War II to 1953 he held a series of jobs, including selling early computers manufactured by Ferranti. His prescient forecasts of the impact that the technology would have on daily life were published in his 1953 book Faster than Thought.

In 1953, Bowden became principal of the Manchester College of Science and Technology, a vocational education college in Manchester. The post-war expansion in university education in Britain, coupled with Bowden's energy, creativity and lobbying soon entailed the college's transformation into UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.)

In 1964, he was created a life peer and in 1964, Harold Wilson appointed him Minister for Education and Science. However, Westminster and the labrynths of the civil service were ill-matched to Bowden's direct approach and, in 1965 he returned to UMIST. He retired in 1976.

Bowden was married four times. He died in Bowdon, Cheshire.

Honours

Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers (1975)
Pioneer Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1973)

Bibliography

Entwistle, K.M. "Bowden, (Bertram) Vivian, Baron Bowden (1910-1989)", rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 17 June 2005 (subscription required)

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