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Charles Hard Townes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Charles Hard Townes | |
|---|---|
 Charles Townes in 1968 |
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| Born | July 28, 1915 Greenville South Carolina |
| Residence |  United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Physicist |
| Institutions | Bell Labs Institute for Defense Analyses |
| Alma mater | Furman University Caltech |
| Academic advisor | William Smythe |
| Notable students | James P. Gordon Robert Boyd Ali Javan Ray Chiao |
| Known for | Inventing the maser |
| Notable prizes |  Nobel Prize in Physics (1964) |
| Religious stance | United Church of Christ |
Charles Hard Townes (born July 28, 1915) is an American Nobel Prize-winning physicist and educator. Townes is known for his work on the theory and application of the maser, on which he got the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics connected with both maser and laser devices. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964.
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Townes received his bachelor's degrees in physics and modern languages from Furman University in 1935 where he was initiated into the society of Pi Kappa Phi and his M.A. in physics from Duke University in 1936. Townes came to the California Institute of Technology as a graduate student in 1937, and got his PhD in 1939. Later that year he became a member of the technical staff at Bell Labs, where he stayed until 1948. He then joined the faculty at Columbia University, and began the work that in 1953 produced the maser. From 1959 to 1961 he headed the Institute for Defense Analyses in Washington, D.C. He then served as provost and professor of physics at MIT for six years. In 1967, he went to the University of California, Berkeley, where his pioneering program in radio and infrared astronomy led to the discovery of ammonia and water molecules in the interstellar medium.
Charlie Townes was the lead researcher in the construction of the Infrared Spatial Interferometer, the first astronomical interferometer to operate in the mid-infrared. He continues researching into astrophysics and astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. With Arthur Leonard Schawlow, he wrote the book Microwave Spectroscopy, published in 1955.
During his time at Bell Labs Townes was asked to help with the development of a new radar system for aircraft in World War II. He never served in the military, but felt he was helping his country from within the lab. Townes and his team were successful in creating more accurate and precise radar systems, but none of them were ever mass produced by the military. Some of the new systems developed were used as prototypes in early B-52 Bombers. After the war, Townes continued to work at Bell Labs, creating new radar by experimenting with different radio wavelengths.
Moving from Bell Labs in 1948, to the physics department of Columbia University allowed Townes to return to experimental physics and away from the applications of physics. At Columbia, his research was still partially funded by the US Navy’s desire for even smaller radar. At Bell Labs Townes helped develop a radar system with a 1.25 centimeter wavelength. After moving to Columbia, the military wanted radar systems with wavelengths only a few millimeters. The shorting of the wavelength led Townes and his colleagues to focus on microwave research. In 1951, the idea of the maser was proposed to Townes' superiors. After three years and many experiments, Townes and Jim Gordon created a working maser.
Townes has been widely recognised for his scientific work and leadership.
- 1956 - elected Full Member of the National Academy of Sciences.
- 1961 - awarded the David Sarnoff Electronics Award given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Rumford Medal awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- 1962 - The John Carty Award given by the National Academy of Science.
- 1963 - Young Medal and Prize, for distinguished research in the field of optics presented by the Institute of physics.
- 1964 - The Nobel Prize in Physics with N. G. Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov for contributions to fundamental work in quantum electronics leading to the development of the maser and laser.
- 1979 - He was awarded the Niels Bohr international medal awarded for contributions to the peaceful use of atomic energy.
- 1980 - Townes was inducted by his home state into the South Carolina Hall of Science and Technology, and has also been awarded a South Carolina Hall of Science and Technology Citation.
- 1982 - He received the National Medal of Science, presented by President Ronald Reagan.
- 1994 - elected Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- 1998 - awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship by the American Astronomical Society.
- 2000 - awarded the Lomonosov Medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
- 2003 - awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in Telluride, Colorado.
- 2005 - awarded the Templeton Prize for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities."
- He has also been awarded the LeConte Medallion.
- 2006 - Along with associate Raj Reddy, Townes was awarded the Vannevar Bush Award for Lifetime Contributions and Statesmanship to Science
- Between 1966 and 1970 he was chairman of the NASA Science Advisory Committee for the Apollo lunar landing program.
He was born in Greenville, South Carolina to Baptist parents. He is a brother of Pi Kappa Phi, Delta Chapter. He is a Protestant Christian, and is a member of the United Church of Christ. His father was an attorney. He has four daughters and seven grandchildren. He considers that "science and religion [are] quite parallel, much more similar than most people think and that in the long run, they must converge"[1]
- R.Y. Chiao, Amazing Light : A Volume Dedicated To Charles Hard Townes On His 80th Birthday, Springer, 1996.
- J. Hecht, Beam: The Race to Make the Laser, Oxford University Press, 2005.
- J. Hecht, Laser Pioneers, Academic Press, 1991.
- N. Taylor, Laser: The Inventor, the Noble Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War, Citadel, 2003.
- C.H. Townes, Making Waves, AIP Press, 1995.
- C.H. Townes, How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist, Oxford University Press, 2000.
- Charles Hard Townes
- Amazing Light: Visions of Discovery (Symposium in honor of Charles Townes
- Infrared Spatial Interferometer Array
- Research page
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Claude Shannon |
IEEE Medal of Honor 1967 |
Succeeded by Gordon K. Teal |
| Preceded by Dwight Eisenhower |
Time's Men of the Year(Alongside Linus Pauling, Isidor Rabi, Edward Teller, Joshua Lederberg, Donald A. Glaser, Willard Libby, Robert Woodward, Charles Draper, William Shockley, Emilio Segrè, John Enders, George Beadle, James Van Allen and Edward Purcell representing U.S. Scientists) 1960 |
Succeeded by John F. Kennedy |
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Julius Stratton (1949–1952) • Charles Townes (1961–1966) • Jerome Wiesner (1966–1971) • Walter A. Rosenblith (1971–1980) • Francis E. Low (1980–1985) • John M. Deutch (1985–1990) • Mark Wrighton (1990–1995) • Joel Moses (1995–1998) • Robert A. Brown (1998–2005) • L. Rafael Reif (2005–) |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Townes, Charles Hard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American Physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 28 July 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Greenville, South Carolina |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Categories: 1915 births | Living people | American physicists | American Protestants | Experimental physicists | Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences | Members and associates of the United States National Academy of Sciences | Nobel laureates in Physics | IEEE Medal of Honor recipients | National Inventors Hall of Fame | Scientists at Bell Labs | National Medal of Science laureates | Foreign Members of the Royal Society | Vannevar Bush Award recipients | Furman University alumni | Duke University alumni | Irish-Americans | People from Greenville, South Carolina | California Institute of Technology alumni | University of California, Berkeley faculty | Massachusetts Institute of Technology provosts | Templeton Prize laureates