William Bowen Bonnor (9 September 1920 – 17 August 2015)[1][2] was a mathematician and gravitation physicist best known for his research into astrophysics, cosmology and general relativity.
On leaving school in 1937 Bonnor served in clerical and executive branches of the Civil Service until 1944, when he became a chemist in the Admiralty, doing development work in paint technology.
He joined the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Liverpool, where he met his future wife, Jean Stott, a staff tutor in social science.
He was also active internationally, making contact with scientific workers in the socialist countries in eastern Europe, particularly those in Jena in East Germany.
In this area he worked on the theory of gravitational waves, on the field of two charged bodies, and on the interaction of spinning particles.
[6] In 1999, at the age of 78, he showed that in some cosmological models the expansion of space-time affects the size of hydrogen atoms, while in others it remains strictly constant.