Arthur Leonard Schawlow (May 5, 1921 – April 28, 1999) was an American physicist. He is best remembered for his work on lasers, for which he was awarded a 1981 Nobel Prize.
His mother, Helen Mason, was from Canada 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 and received a scholarship in science at the University of To...
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Arthur Leonard Schawlow (May 5, 1921 – April 28, 1999) was an American physicist. He is best remembered for his work on lasers, for which he was awarded a 1981 Nobel Prize.
His mother, Helen Mason, was from Canada 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 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...
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