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Charles Hard Townes
Born July 28, 1915 -
Production of Electromagnetic Energy; Masers and Maser Communications System
Patent Nos. 2,879,439; 2,929,922
Inducted 1976
Charles Townes's invention of the maser, a device that amplifies
electromagnetic waves, created a means for the sensitive reception of
communications and for precise navigation. The maser provided basic
components of the laser, for which Townes also received a patent. Born in
Greenville, South Carolina, Townes joined the technical staff of Bell
Telephone Laboratories Inc. and worked on radar bombing systems during
World War II. In 1948 he joined the faculty of Columbia University and
three years later had the idea that culminated in construction of the
MASER. From 1959 to 1961 Townes served as vice president and director of
research of the Institute for Defense Analysis in Washington, D.C. He then
was appointed provost and professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. The difference between a maser and a laser is that the laser
utilizes visible light. Apart from being useful tools in the laboratory,
both masers and lasers have found many applications in radar,
communications, astronomy, navigation, atomic clocks, surgery, and industry.
For his advances in the field of quantum electronics, Townes was awarded
the 1964 Nobel Prize for Physics.
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