Arthur Schawlow
Memorial Resolution (Stanford News Service).
Other links:
1996 Oral History interview at Berkeley
Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science, awarded annually by the American Physical Society.
Research Interests
Past research involved applying laser and other spectroscopic techniques to a wide range of problems in basic physics. In recent years these have included methods of simplifying complex atomic or molecular spectra by using a laser to label one chosen lower level, which is periodically depleted or oriented. Sensitive (non-laser) spectroscopy has been used to detect rare earth ions in single atomic layers and in metals. Recently investigated factors affecting tunability of semi-conductor diode lasers, and the uses of these lasers for spectroscopy.
Career History
- J.G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professor of Physics
- B.A., 1941, M.A., 1942,
- Ph.D., 1949, University of Toronto
- Co-inventor, with Charles H. Townes, of the laser, 1958
- Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate, Columbia University, 1949-51
- Research Physicist, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1951-61
- Stuart Ballantine Medal, 1962
- Frederick Ives Medal
- Golden Plate Award
- Richtmyer Memorial Prize Lecturer
- Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1966
- Fellow of the Optical Society of America, 1966
- Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Fellow of the American Philosophical Society
- Fellow of the Institute of Physics (Great Britian)
- California Scientist of the Year, 1973
- 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy
- U.S. National Medal of Science
- Honorary degrees from Belgium, Canada, England, Ireland, Sweden, and U.S.
- President of the Optical Society of America, 1975
- President of the American Physical Society, 1981
- Inductee in the Inventor's Hall of Fame, 1996