Townes, Charles Hard definition of Townes, Charles Hard in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Townes, Charles Hard, 1915–, American physicist and educator, b. Greenville, S.C. He was educated at Furman Univ., Duke, and the California Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1939), was on the technical staff of the Bell Telephone Laboratories (1939–48), and taught at Columbia (1948–59). After serving as vice president and director of research of the Institute for Defense Analyses, Washington, D.C., he was provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1961–66). Townes is known for his work on the theory and application of the maser maser (mā`zər), device for creation, amplification, and transmission of an intense, highly focused beam of high-frequency radio
..... Click the link for more information. , on which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics connected with both maser and laser laser [acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation], device for the creation, amplification, and transmission of a narrow, intense beam of coherent light .
..... Click the link for more information. devices. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with N. G. Basov Basov, Nikolai Gennadiyevich (nyĭkəlī` gĕnä`dēyĕ'vĭch bä`səf)
..... Click the link for more information. and A. M. Prokhorov Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich (əlyĭksän`dər mēkhī`ləvĭch prô`khərəf)
..... Click the link for more information. for contributions to this field.