George A. Cowan

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Biographical Information

"Dr. George A. Cowan is a research scientist, academician, businessman and philanthropist. In 1984 he founded the Santa Fe Institute, a private institution that fosters interdisciplinary research among scientists from the physical, biological, computational and social sciences. He was the institute’s president from 1984 to 1991 and continues to serve on its board... From 1949 to 1988 he worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, serving as director of chemistry, associate laboratory director of research and senior laboratory fellow. He was appointed to the White House Science Council during the Reagan administration. In 1990 he received the Enrico Fermi Award for “a lifetime of exceptional achievement in the development and use of energy.” In 1997 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.... Cowan was a founding director of Los Alamos National Bank and was its chairman for 30 years. He is also a patron of the arts and was a early board member of the Santa Fe Opera. He and his wife, Helen, were longtime friends of John C. Warner, president of Carnegie Mellon from 1950 to 1965, and they have set up a trust to establish a chair in psychology in Warner’s memory..."