works not far from the Bell Labs facility in Murray Hill, where her father began working in 1939 to develop radar bombing and navigation systems.


Dr. Arno Penzias, a partner with venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates in Menlo Park, CA, and winner of a 1978 Nobel in physics for his work in radio astronomy, earned his Ph.D. under Townes in 1961 at Columbia University before taking a full-time job at Bell Labs.


Townes “was really honest… and never cut corners,” Penzias remembers, “and he had scientific integrity. He had an amazing sense of humor; he was an extremely polite Southern gentleman.”


Slated to open the August celebration of Townes’ life and work with a presentation titled Charles Townes as Catalyst, Penzias — like the program organizers — remembers their former teacher for far more than the laser. “He’s done so many things; I wouldn’t say the laser (was most important).” Townes’ repertoire ranged from low-energy experimental physics to spectroscopy, interstellar molecules, astrophysics and microwave technology. “Pretty much anything outside of nuclear physics he’d get his hands on.” And, “he was a phenomenal user of scientific


implements — which many people didn’t realize were scientific implements.”


But Townes also tried to live a balanced life, Penzias notes: “He was not a maniacal workaholic. He needed to rest his brain; he was in the office long hours and weekends, but he was doing scuba diving in the Bahamas when I didn’t know anybody did scuba diving.”


Ultimately, “he really was a teacher,” Penzias concludes. “He was very empathetic if someone had a problem — as I did; he worked me through it. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have gotten my Ph.D.”


Timeline Sources “History of the Laser,” www.photonics.com; Laserfest history, http://laserfest.org; “A History Of The Laser: A Trip Through The Light Fantastic,” Photonics Spectra, http://www.photonics. com/Article.aspx?AID=42279; Encyclopaedia Brittanica, www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Hard-Townes; Nobel biography, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/ laureates/1964/townes-bio.html; www.templetonprize.org/tpctwtp.html.


Templeton biography, More About Charles Townes Z136.9


Safe Use of Lasers in Manufacturing Environments


LIA Exclusive Interview Video: www.youtube.com/user/LaserInstitute


Oral History: Interviews conducted in 1991-92 by Suzanne B. Riess for the Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library at University of California, Berkeley, http://tinyurl/ojnmtyb


Video: Townes reflects on his career from his office at the University of California, Berkeley, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLQkzAiNBEw


Hometown Retrospective:


Account of his life from The Greenville News, http://tinyurl.com/ pqsheyz


Read the Master Patent: www.google.com/patents/US2929922


Column: LIA President Robert Thomas recalls Townes, Page 5


Published by:


LIA.ORG/ANSI.9 1.800.34.LASER


8 LIATODAY FOCUS: LASERS IN MANUFACTURING JULY/AUGUST 2015 Connect: Share your thoughts online with the hashtag #Townes100


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