Arthur Leonard Schawlow
Encyclopedia
Arthur Leonard Schawlow was an American physicist
. He is best remembered for his work on laser
s, for which he shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics
with Nicolaas Bloembergen
and Kai Siegbahn
.
and his father, Arthur Schawlow, was a Jewish immigrant
from Latvia
. When Arthur was three years old, they moved to Toronto
, Canada.
At the age of 16 he completed high school
at Vaughan Road Academy
(then Vaughan Collegiate Institute) and received a scholarship in science at the University of Toronto
. After earning his undergraduate degree
Schawlow continued in graduate school
at the University of Toronto which was interrupted due to World War II
. At the end of the war he began work on his Ph.D
at U of T with Professor Malcolm Crawford. He then took a postdoctoral
position with Charles Townes at the physics department of Columbia University
in the fall of 1949.
In 1951 he married Aurelia Townes, younger sister to Charles Townes, and together they had three children; Arthur Jr., Helen, and Edith. Arthur Jr. was autistic
, with very little speech ability.
He considered himself to be an orthodox Protestant Christian and attended a Methodist church.
He went on to accept a position at Bell Labs
in late 1951. He left in 1961 to join the faculty at Stanford University
as a professor
. He remained until he retired to emeritus
status in 1996.
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.
Although his research focused on optics
, in particular, lasers and their use in spectroscopy
, he 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 coauthored Microwave Spectroscopy (1955) with Charles Townes. Also with Townes, they prepared a much disputed, by Gordon Gould
, laser
patent
filed by Bell Labs
in 1958.
In 1991 the NEC Corporation and the American Physical Society
established a prize: 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."
Schawlow was born in Mount Vernon, New York
and died of leukemia
in Palo Alto, California
.
, he stated "I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life."
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.
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. He is best remembered for his work on laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s, for which he shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
with Nicolaas Bloembergen
Nicolaas Bloembergen
Nicolaas Bloembergen is a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate.He received his Ph.D. degree from University of Leiden in 1948; while pursuing his PhD at Harvard, Bloembergen also worked part-time as a graduate research assistant for Edward Mills Purcell at the MIT Radiation Laboratory...
and Kai Siegbahn
Kai Siegbahn
Kai Manne Börje Siegbahn was a Swedish physicist.He was born in Lund, Sweden, and his father Manne Siegbahn also won the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1924. Siegbahn earned his doctorate at the University of Stockholm in 1944...
.
Biography
His mother, Helen Mason, was from CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and his father, Arthur Schawlow, was a Jewish immigrant
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
from Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
. When Arthur was three years old, they moved to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada.
At the age of 16 he completed high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
at Vaughan Road Academy
Vaughan Road Academy
Vaughan Road Academy is a Toronto District School Board International Baccalaureate school in the Oakwood-Vaughan neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada. Vaughan Road is situated at the Vaughan Road and Winona Drive intersection close to Oakwood Avenue and southwest of Forest Hill. It works in...
(then Vaughan Collegiate Institute) and received a scholarship in science at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. After earning his undergraduate degree
Undergraduate degree
An undergraduate degree is a colloquial term for an academic degree taken by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. It is usually offered at an institution of higher education, such as a university...
Schawlow continued in graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
at the University of Toronto which was interrupted due to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. At the end of the war he began work on his Ph.D
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
at U of T with Professor Malcolm Crawford. He then took a postdoctoral
Postdoctoral researcher
Postdoctoral research is scholarly research conducted by a person who has recently completed doctoral studies, normally within the previous five years. It is intended to further deepen expertise in a specialist subject, including acquiring novel skills and methods...
position with Charles Townes at the physics department of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in the fall of 1949.
In 1951 he married Aurelia Townes, younger sister to Charles Townes, and together they had three children; Arthur Jr., Helen, and Edith. Arthur Jr. was autistic
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
, with very little speech ability.
He considered himself to be an orthodox Protestant Christian and attended a Methodist church.
He went on to accept a position at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
in late 1951. He left in 1961 to join the faculty at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
as a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. He remained until he retired to emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
status in 1996.
Schawlow and Professor Robert Hofstadter
Robert Hofstadter
Robert Hofstadter was an American physicist. He was the joint winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his consequent discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons."-Biography :Born in New York City, he entered City...
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
Paradise, California
Paradise is an incorporated town in Butte County, in the northwest foothills of California's Central Valley, in the Sierra. The town is considered part of the Chico Metropolitan Area. The population was 26,218 at the 2010 census, down from 26,408 at the 2000 census...
. 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
Facilitated communication
Facilitated communication is a process by which a facilitator supports the hand or arm of a communicatively impaired individual while using a keyboard or other devices with the aim of helping the individual to develop pointing skills and to communicate...
with patients of autism.
Although his research focused on optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
, in particular, lasers and their use in spectroscopy
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative...
, he also pursued investigations in the areas of superconductivity
Superconductivity
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
and nuclear resonance
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Nuclear magnetic resonance is a physical phenomenon in which magnetic nuclei in a magnetic field absorb and re-emit electromagnetic radiation...
. Schawlow shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
with Nicolaas Bloembergen
Nicolaas Bloembergen
Nicolaas Bloembergen is a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate.He received his Ph.D. degree from University of Leiden in 1948; while pursuing his PhD at Harvard, Bloembergen also worked part-time as a graduate research assistant for Edward Mills Purcell at the MIT Radiation Laboratory...
and Kai Siegbahn for their contributions to the development of laser spectroscopy.
Schawlow coauthored Microwave Spectroscopy (1955) with Charles Townes. Also with Townes, they prepared a much disputed, by Gordon Gould
Gordon Gould
Gordon Gould was an American physicist who is widely, but not universally, credited with the invention of the laser. Gould is best known for his thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies...
, laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
filed by Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
in 1958.
In 1991 the NEC Corporation and the American Physical Society
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
established a prize: the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science
Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science
The Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science is a prize that has been awarded annually by the American Physical Society since 1991. The recipient is chosen for "outstanding contributions to basic research which uses lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of...
. The prize is awarded annually to "candidates who have made outstanding contributions to basic research using lasers."
Schawlow was born in Mount Vernon, New York
Mount Vernon, New York
Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It lies on the border of the New York City borough of The Bronx.-Overview:...
and died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
.
Awards
- 1962 - Stuart Ballantine Medal
- 1963 - Young Medal and PrizeYoung Medal and PrizeThe Young Medal and Prize is a prize awarded on odd numbered years by the Institute of Physics in the memory of Thomas Young for distinguished research in the field of optics, including physics outside the visible region.- Young Medalists:...
, for distinguished research in the field of opticsOpticsOptics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
presented by the Institute of physicsInstitute of PhysicsThe Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding and application of physics. It has a worldwide membership of around 40,000.... - 1976 - awarded the Frederic Ives Medal by OSAOptical Society of AmericaThe Optical Society is a scientific society dedicated to advancing the study of light—optics and photonics—in theory and application, by means of publishing, organizing conferences and exhibitions, partnership with industry, and education. The organization has members in more than 100 countries...
- 1981 - Nobel Prize for Physics
Science and Religion
He has participated in science and religion discussions. Regarding GodGod
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, he stated "I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life."
Arthur Schawlow was an intense fan and collector of traditional American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
recordings, as well as a supporter of instrumental groups performing this type of music.
See also
- Optical Society of America#Past Presidents of the OSA