Charles H. Townes (1915-2015) was an American physicist best known for his pioneering work in the development of the laser and maser (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov for their contributions to the field of quantum electronics.

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Charles H. Townes by Codex 0 Created 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-31
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Figure 1.
Portrait of Charles H. Townes
. Woodruff T. Sullivan III; NRAO/AUI Archives, Sullivan Collection; rights NRAO/AUI/NSF. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, with NRAO's displayed source-credit/non-endorsement and third-party-rights qualifications., via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
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