He obtained his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Dr. Wowk obtained his PhD in physics in 1997. His graduate studies included work in online portal imaging for radiotherapy at the Manitoba Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation (now Cancer Care Manitoba), and work on artifact reduction for functional magnetic resonance imaging at the National Research Council of Canada. His work in the latter field is cited by several text books, including Functional MRI which includes an image he obtained of magnetic field changes inside the human body caused by respiration.