Fowler is professor emeritus, Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Fowler was chair of the department from 1988 to 1994 and helped establish the multi-disciplinary Center for Nuclear and Toxic Waste Management at UC Berkeley. His honors and awards include elected membership in the National Academy of Sciences; Fusion Power Associates Distinguished Career Award, 1995; and The Berkeley Citation, 1995. He was a member of the review panel for California's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, 1998-2001, and is also a member of the second PIER independent review panel, 2003-2005.