Cowling, Thomas George (1906-1990)

English applied mathematician and physicist who contributed significantly to modern research into stellar energy, with special reference to the Sun. Cowling was born in Walthamstow, Essex, and studied at Oxford. He was professor of mathematics at University College, Bangor, 1945-48, and at Leeds University 1948-70. Cowling was responsible for demonstrating the existence of a convective core in stars, suggesting that the Sun may behave like a giant dynamo whose rotation, internal circulation, and convection produce the immensely powerful electric currents and magnetic fields associated with sunspots. With Swedish physicist Hannes Alfvén, Cowling showed that such currents and fields are likely to have existed since the Sun was first formed.