Charles Townes

CHARLES H. TOWNES received the 1964 Nobel Prize "for fundamental work in quantum electronics which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle." He holds the original patent for the maser with Arthur Schawlow, the original laser patent. Townes' principal scientific work is in microwave spectroscopy, nuclear and molecular structure, quantum electronics, radio astronomy and infrared astronomy. His contributions paved the way for applications in the modern communications, medical, manufacturing, and defense fields.

At Furman University Townes earned a B.S. in physics and a B.A. in modern languages. He received a master's degree in physics at Duke University and a Ph.D. degree in physics at the California Institute of Technology. Starting as a staff member of Bell Laboratories, Townes moved to Columbia University where he became Professor and Chairman of the Physics Department. Next he went to Washington and served as Vice-President and Director of Research of the Institute for Defense Analysis before becoming Provost and Institute Professor at MIT. Later he moved to the University of California where he became a University Professor Emeritus, and in 1994 became a Professor in the Graduate School.

At the University of California, Townes returned to full-time research and teaching, and pursued new interests in astrophysics. His work there in radio astronomy resulted in the first detection of polyatomic molecules in interstellar clouds and the use of molecular spectra to characterize these dark clouds, now an important astronomical field. In the infrared region he has worked primarily on high spectral and spatial resolution for astronomical observations. Much of this work has been directed towards understanding the galactic center. Since 1998, Townes has been using a pair of moveable telescopes for obtaining very high angular resolution of astronomical objects at infrared wavelengths by spatial interferometry. A third telescope for this system will soon be installed.

Throughout his career Townes has been active as a government advisor. He served as a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee from 1965-1969, and also advised for the Apollo Program, plus chairing committees on Strategic Weapons and the MX missile. His active career has won him numerous awards besides the Nobel Prize. Townes received the 1982 National Medal of Science; the IEEE Medal of Honor; NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal; and the 1979 Niels Bohr International Gold Medal, among others.