For the long-standing academic is now thought to be one of the oldest working university professors in Britain.
And he is still applying his grey matter to some of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the world as he turns 80 today.
He is the oldest professor at the university and has chalked up more than 60 years of research in theoretical physics.
He first came to Warwick in 1966 and, despite officially retiring from the physics department 13 years ago, shows no sign of stepping back from his calculations and equations.
“Physics is my hobby as well as my job and I have no plans to give it up,” he said.
“I’ve been very fortunate for the last 60 years to work in an area which I love and which still fascinates me when I look at the world around me in my everyday life.
“A non-scientific person sees a tree and thinks it is beautiful, but a scientist sees a tree and sees not only its beauty but also the clever physics behind it.”
He is a frequent author of academic articles on the mathematics behind subjects such as fusion energy, which could one day promise clean and unlimited power
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Another area that interests Professor Rowland is hot plasma and the behaviour of cosmic particles from the sun which are behind phenomena like solar storms and the Northern Lights.
He is also modelling the dynamics of the shoaling of fish and the swarming of starlings, which can offer insight into human crowd behaviour, as well as looking at motorway traffic and how it flows.
He added: “When you’re involved in my kind of research there’s always something new to discover, and there’s always a new challenge.
“I think it’s that constant novelty, and also the interactions I have with the younger generation of research students, which helps keep me feeling young.” He has received numerous accolades during his career, which include being awarded a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship in 2001.
In 2006, he won the Andrzeja Sottana Medal for distinguished research with the Sottan Institute for Nuclear Studies in Poland, the only non-Polish recipient of the award.
