Nobel laureate brought laser to everyday life
BERKELEY, Calif. — Charles H. Townes’s inspiration for the predecessor of the laser came to him while sitting on a park bench, waiting for a restaurant to open for breakfast.
On the tranquil morning of April 26, 1951, Townes scribbled a theory on scrap paper that would lead to the laser, the invention he’s known for and which transformed everyday life and led to other scientific discoveries.
Townes, who was also known for his strong spiritual faith, famously compared that moment to a religious revelation.
The 99- year- old Nobel Prize-winning physicist died Tuesday.
In 1954, that theory was realized when Townes and his students developed the laser’s predecessor, the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).
“I realized there would be many applications for the laser,” Townes told Esquire magazine in 2001, “but it never occurred to me we’d get such power from it.”
The laser paved the way for other scientific discoveries that revolutionize everything from medicine to manufacturing, but also has a huge array of applications today: DVD players, gun sights, printers, computer networks, metal cutters, tattoo removal and vision correction are just some of the tools and technologies that rely on lasers.
“Charlie Townes had an enormous impact on physics and society in general,” Steven Boggs, the chairman of the physics department at Berkeley, said Wednesday.
A devoted member of the United Church of Christ, Townes drew praise and skepticism later in his career with a series of speeches and essays investigating the similarities between science and religion.
“Science tries to understand what our universe is like and how it works, including us humans,” Townes wrote in 2005 upon being awarded the Templeton Prize.
“My own view is that, while science and religion may seem different, they have many similarities, and should interact and enlighten each other,” he wrote.
Townes was a faculty member at Columbia University when he did most of the work that would make him one of three scientists to share the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for research leading to the creation of the laser. The others were Russian physicists Aleksandr M. Prokhorov and Nicolai G. Basov.
Born on July 28, 1915, in Greenville, S.C., to Baptist parents who embraced an openminded interpretation of theology, Townes found his calling during his sophomore year at Furman University.
Townes lived in Berkeley and is survived by his wife and four daughters.