Arthur Leonard Schawlow

thumb|Schawlow in 1981 Arthur Leonard Schawlow (May 5, 1921 – April 28, 1999) was an American physicist and co-inventor of the laser with Charles Townes. His central insight, which Townes overlooked, was the use of two mirrors as the resonant cavity to take MASER action to visible wavelengths. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for his work using lasers to determine atomic energy levels with great precision. Quotes Never measure anything but frequency! Advice to the students. Quoted in Hänsch, Theodor W. "Nobel lecture: passion for precision." Reviews of Modern Physics 78.4 (2006): 1297. To do successful research, you don't need to know everything, you just need to know one thing that isn't known. as quoted by Steven Chu and Charles H. Townes Biographical Memoirs V.83 National Academies Press 2003 http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10830 0-309-08699-X 201 Anything worth doing is worth doing twice, the first time quick and dirty and the second time the best way you can. as quoted by Steven Chu and Charles H. Townes Biographical Memoirs V.83 National Academies Press 2003 0-309-08699-X 201 Dead is when the chemists take over the subject. answering question if the subject of spectroscopy was dead for the physicists, as quoted by Steven Chu and Charles H. Townes Biographical Memoirs V.83 National Academies Press 2003 0-309-08699-X 202 Anything will lase if you hit it hard enough. as quoted by Steven Chu and Charles H. Townes Biographical Memoirs V.83 National Academies Press 2003 0-309-08699-X 203 A diatomic molecule is a molecule with one atom too many. as quoted in Dave DeMille Diatomic molecules, a window onto fundamental physics Physics Today 2015 December 34 68 12 10.1063/PT.3.3020 External links Category:Academics from the United States Category:Physicists from the United States Category:Nobel laureates in Physics Category:1921 births Category:1999 deaths Category:Inventors Category:Jews from the United States Category:Methodists from the United States Category:People from New York City Category:Nobel laureates from the United States Category:National Medal of Science laureates Category:Autism activists Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society