Gavin Fowler has flourished in the classroom while juggling major research projects and track.

Gavin Fowler ’24 came to Colgate to study astrogeophysics.

The Hopewell, N.J., native grew up with a love for math and science, especially geology and astronomy. By choosing Colgate, he had the opportunity to study a topic that combined all his favorite subjects while allowing him to join the track team as a distance runner.

After two years at Colgate, a new opportunity emerged that Fowler had not envisioned when he began his college career.

Heading into the summer of 2022, Fowler was invited to work with Associate Professor of Physics Jonathan Levine on a project that would later be selected by NASA for a mission to the moon.

The project is called CODEX (Chemistry Organic and Dating Experiment), and it consists of a one-of-a-kind spectrometer that’s built for spaceflight and designed to help scientists understand the age of rocks. 

Levine, one of the project’s lead scientists, has worked on CODEX with researchers from the Southwest Research Institute for 20 years. The instrument is kept at the institute’s Boulder, Colo., facility, and throughout the years, Levine has invited Colgate students to work with him on the project. 

Since that time, Fowler has taken on a number of vital tasks for the collaboration.

In his first summer with the project, he did various jobs in a Colgate lab that included data analysis of rocks. But he spent the following summer in Boulder, working directly on the prototype.

“In my first summer, I had no clue about anything. It took a lot of time to learn. But it has been really rewarding,” Fowler said. 

While Fowler was in Boulder, NASA announced it had selected CODEX for a lunar lander/rover mission to the moon. The spectrometer would be used to study the formation of the moon and its volcanic history.

Fowler said everyone involved in the project was ecstatic when NASA made the announcement.

“It was really cool to see it happen,” he said. “It has been a long project. It’s been great to be a part of it.”

While no official launch date has been set, the earliest is 2027, Fowler said.

Gavin Fowler presents an outline of a class project at a campus event.

CODEX is made up of several cumbersome lasers. But in order to meet NASA’s weight limitations, researchers have been reconfiguring the prototype to make it lighter, meaning fewer lasers, Fowler said.

“We’ve been doing research into how we could collect data with only three lasers,” Fowler said. “We’ve been doing a lot of testing recently, and for the most part, we have it down.”

Fowler said the Colgate group also wants to send cameras and a mini rover to collect rock samples on the moon.

CODEX has been a major part of Fowler’s life for the last two years. In addition to his research, he co-authored a paper on the project, which was published by The Planetary Science Journal in 2023. 

Levine applauded Fowler for his work in the laboratory and with the published paper. 

“Working with bright students like Gavin is the thing I like most about my job at Colgate,” Levine said. “But even among bright students, Gavin Fowler has a special ability to get to know his data, the way some others know people: each measurement has its own special qualities, idiosyncrasies, and even personality, and Gavin astonishes me with his ability to juggle all these in his head.

“That quality is what allowed us to get important science out of what had been a confusing set of observations we had made but shelved before Gavin even came to Colgate. Gavin had the key insights that made possible our 2023 Planetary Science Journal article.”

Fowler has also found other ways to pursue his interests in science while juggling a busy schedule. 

While his commitment to track & field often requires traveling with the team and devoting considerable time to training, he has managed to find time to tutor two introductory physics courses, and he has joined the physics and geology clubs. 

Last fall, Fowler took on a second research project that examines meteorological data in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. The goal is to determine possible factors that can impact freezing of permafrost in the region, he said. 

“By understanding these factors, we can better predict changes to winter-time freezing in Antarctica,” he said.

As a distance runner, Fowler has faced a number of minor injuries that impeded his progress. But despite a few setbacks, he’s been able to compete alongside his teammates and watch the program grow. 

After a few tough seasons in which the program finished near the bottom at meets, the Raiders in 2023-24 began seeing better results. Colgate was now finishing in the middle of the pack. 

Fowler attributed the improvement to a talented first-year class, the experience of the upperclassmen, and a strong culture.

“It was very rewarding to know we are finally in this phase of moving up,” Fowler said. “We finally broke through. When I leave, the team will be in a really good position to keep moving up. That’s my proudest athletic achievement.”

Now with graduation a month away, Fowler is preparing for the next step in his journey. After he graduates, he plans to enroll at the University of Chicago to pursue a Ph. D in cosmochemistry.

While he’s excited about studying at Chicago, Fowler said he’s going to miss Colgate’s small classes and sense of community.

“I’m happy with my choice to come here,” Fowler said. “It’s going to be hard to say goodbye.”