Townes, Charles H.
$75.00
Shared 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on theory and application of the maser, and other work in quantum electronics associated with both maser and laser devices
Description
Type: Signed Card
Description: (1915-2015) American physicist, worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated with both maser and laser devices. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov. He as a government advisor and met with Presidents Truman-Clinton. He directed the US government’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the Apollo lunar landing program. After becoming a professor at UCAL Berkeley in 1967, he began an astrophysical program that produced several important discoveries, such as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
1935 B.S. in Physics & B.A. in Modern Languages at Furman University, 1937 MA degree in physics at Duke University in 1937, 1939 Ph. D. from CalTech. During WW II, he worked on radar bombing systems at Bell Labs. In 1950, Townes was appointed Professor at Columbia Univ., Exec. Director of the Columbia Radiation Laboratory 1950-52, Chairman of the Physics Department 1952-55.
In 1951, Townes conceived a new way to create intense, precise beams of coherent radiation, for which he invented the acronym maser (for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). When the same principle was applied to higher frequencies, the term laser was used (the word “light” substituting for “microwave”). During 1953, Townes, Jas. P. Gordon and Herbert J. Zeiger built the 1st ammonia maser at Columbia. He was on leave from Columbia 1959-61 to be VP and Director of Research of the Institute for Defense Analyses in Washington. He was Provost and Professor of Physics at MIT 1961-67 then appointed Professor of Physics at UCAL Berkeley where he remained for almost 50 years. He was chairman of the NASA Science Advisory Committee for the Apollo lunar landing program 1966-70. For his creation of the maser, Townes was co-recipient of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics. He also developed the use of masers and lasers for astronomy, was part of a team that first discovered complex molecules in space, and determined the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Townes’ last major technological creation was the Infrared Spatial Interferometer with Walt Fitelson, Ed Wishnow and others. It combined 3 mobile infrared detectors aligned by lasers that study the same star. If each telescope is 10m from the other, it creates an impression of a 30m lens. The technology plays an important role in the search for extraterrestrial life in collaboration with SETI.
Signed 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 white card.
Condition: Very good
