Cowley is a 1959 graduate of Wellesley College, where she became interested in astronomy after taking a general education course on the subject. She went to the University of Michigan for graduate study in astronomy, earned a Ph.D. there, and met her eventual husband, astronomer Charles R. Cowley.[1]
She continued as a researcher at the University of Chicago until 1967, when she returned to the University of Michigan as a research scientist. In 1983, she took a professorship at Arizona State University.[1]
Recognition
In 1986, Wellesley College gave Cowley their Alumnae Achievement Award.[1] She was named a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.[4][5]