Arthur Leonard Schawlow
American physicist (1921–1999)
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Biography
Arthur Leonard Schawlow was born on May 5, 1921, in Mount Vernon, New York, to a Jewish father from Riga and a Canadian mother. Schawlow was raised in his mother's Protestant faith. When Arthur was three years old, they moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
At the age of 16, Schawlow completed high school at Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute, and received a scholarship in science at the University of Toronto (Victoria College). He obtained his B.A. in 1941 and his M.A. the following year. He received his Ph.D. in 1949 under Professor Malcolm F. Crawford. Schawlow then took a postdoctoral position with Charles Townes in the Physics Department of Columbia University in the fall of 1949.
Schawlow went on to accept a position at Bell Telephone Laboratories in late 1951. He left in 1961 to become Professor of Physics at Stanford University, where he remained until his retirement in 1991.
Although his research focused on optics, in particular lasers and their use in spectroscopy, Schawlow also pursued investigations in the areas of superconductivity and nuclear resonance. Schawlow shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for their contributions to the development of laser spectroscopy.
Schawlow co-authored the widely used text Microwave Spectroscopy (1955) with Charles Townes. Schawlow and Townes were the first to publish the theory of laser design and operation in their seminal 1958 paper on "optical masers", although Gordon Gould is often credited with the "invention" of the laser, due to his unpublished work that predated Schawlow and Townes by a few months. The first working laser was made in 1960 by Theodore Maiman.
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Science and religion
Schawlow participated in science and religion discussions. Regarding God, he stated, "I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life."
Personal life
In 1951, Schawlow married Aurelia Townes, the younger sister of Charles Townes. They had three children: Arthur Jr., Helen, and Edith. Arthur Jr. is autistic, with very little speech ability. Aurelia died in 1991 following a vehicle accident.
Schawlow and Professor Robert Hofstadter at Stanford, who also had an autistic child, teamed up to help each other find solutions to the condition. Arthur Jr. was put in a special center for autistic individuals, and later, Schawlow put together an institution to care for people with autism in Paradise, California. It was later named the Arthur Schawlow Center in 1999, shortly before his death. Schawlow was a promoter of the controversial method of facilitated communication with patients of autism.
Schawlow considered himself to be an orthodox Protestant Christian, and attended a Methodist church. Arthur Schawlow was an intense fan and collector of traditional American jazz recordings, as well as a supporter of instrumental groups performing this type of music.
Schawlow died of leukemia on April 28, 1999, in Palo Alto, California, at the age of 77.
Recognition
Awards
Honorary degrees
Memberships
National awards
Commemoration
In 1991, the American Physical Society established the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science. The Prize is awarded annually to "candidates who have made outstanding contributions to basic research using lasers."