On the tranquil morning hours 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. 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). 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. 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. Townes' research applied the microwave technique used in wartime radar research to the study of spectroscopy, the dispersion of an object's light into its component colors. Born on July 28, 1915, in Greenville, S.C., to Baptist parents who embraced an open-minded interpretation of theology, Townes found his calling during his sophomore year at Furman University and went on to earn a master's degree from Duke University in physics and a doctorate at the California Institute of Technology. Demonstrating that masers could be made to operate in optical and infrared capacities, Townes and his brother-in-law, the late Stanford professor Arthur L.
Laser Co-creator Charles Townes, A Nobel Laureate, Dies
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Business
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 2:50am
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