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Ira Sprague Bowen (December 21, 1898 – February 6, 1973) was an American astrophysicist best known for explaining the mysterious green emission lines in the spectra of gaseous nebulae. In the 1920s, he demonstrated that these lines were due not to a hypothetical element “nebulium,” as previously thought, but to forbidden transitions in doubly ionized oxygen—an important breakthrough in astrophysics and spectroscopy. Bowen served as director of the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories from 1948 to 1964, during which time he oversaw the completion and early operation of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar, then the largest in the world. His leadership, technical skill in instrumentation, and pioneering spectroscopic research left a lasting mark on observational astronomy.