Prof. Charles Townes Has Passed Away

Prof. Charles Townes Has Passed Away

Prof. Charles Townes passed away yesterday January 27, 2015 at the age of 99. As many of you may know, Prof. Townes received the Nobel prize in the 1960's for his contribution to the invention of the laser. What you may not know is that he received his MS degree from Duke Physics in 1936. Prof. Townes visited Duke many times over his career, including giving a keynote address in the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics during one of its annual meetings a few years back. We also have a graduate fellowship partially funded by Prof. Townes and the corporation Perkin Elmer from many years ago, and an anonymous donor has endowed a named faculty position in his honor. Prof. Townes was still quite active in research up until this past year - Prof. Daniel Gauthier met him at a conference in summer of 2013 and says he was as insightful as always. Below are links to obituaries and here is a video interview from 2001 on the Nobel Prize's website.