Charles H. Townes

Charles H. Townes was Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for his investigations into the properties of microwaves which resulted first in the maser and, later, his co-invention of the laser.

His 1966 article, “The Convergence of Science and Religion,” established him as a voice seeking commonality between the two disciplines. He described his 1951 discovery of the principles of the maser—while sitting on a park bench—as a “revelation” and an example of the interplay between the “how” and “why” of science and religion.