Stanley William Herbert Cowley FRS [6] (born 1947)[7] is a British physicist, Emeritus Professor of Solar Planetary Physics at the University of Leicester.

[8][9][10] Cowley was educated at Caludon Castle School, Coventry, and Imperial College, London, graduating with first class honours in physics in 1968.

[2] Cowley had a visiting Scholarship at the University of Colorado in 1972–73 before returning to Imperial, where was appointed a Lecturer in 1982, Reader in 1985 and Professor in 1988.

[11] Cowley's primary research interest is the physical processes that shape the outer plasma environments of Earth and the magnetised planets.

[1][11] Cowley's former doctoral students include Emma Bunce,[3] Nicola Fox,[4] and Caitriona Jackman.