Bovie (Harvard, Ph.D. 1914) was a research fellow to the Harvard Cancer Commission from 1914 to 1920; he then taught biophysics at Harvard Medical School until he became professor of biophysics and head of that newly formed department at Northwestern University in 1927. Together with Harvey Cushing, he helped develop electrosurgery; Bovie's electrosurgical unit was first used in the operating room at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital by Cushing in 1926. From 1929 to 1939 Bovie's principal activities were in Bar Harbor, Me. at the Jackson Memorial Laboratory, where he continued studies on ultraviolet light. In 1939 he moved to Maine and lectured on social technology at Colby College in addition to continuing investigations on the influence of light on plant growth and proving that it took place in darkness.