Charles H. Townes: Man of Science… …Man of Faith

Charles H. Townes, winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 2005 Templeton Prize for the Advancement of Religion embodies the best of the American spirit of innovation and religious belief. “Understanding the order in the universe and understanding the purpose in the universe are not identical, but they are not very far apart.” -Dr. Townes speaking on the reception of the 2005 Templeton Prize for the Advancement of Religion. "I look at science and religion as quite parallel, much more similar than most people think and that in the long run, they must converge." -Dr. Townes speaking at Harvard University, June 13, 2005

Few are aware that Greenville, SC was the birthplace of a scientist who may be second only to Gutenberg in influencing the human family with his invention. Dr. Charles H. Townes won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the laser. But his life encompassed far more than an invention that now impacts fields of medicine, music, astronomy, and even the personal lives of the average person. In the late 1960s, he defied fellow scientists and endorsed President Kennedy’s plan to put a man on the moon, becoming the point man for the Apollo moon landing. But he was more than just a man of science, winning the prestigious Templeton Prize in Religion in 2005 for his attempts to restore the dialogue between religion and science fractured by the scientific revolutions attributed to Copernicus, Darwin, and Einstein. Charles Hard Townes should be long remembered as not only a man of science but also as a man of faith.

Townes was born in Greenville, SC in the summer of 1915, graduated from Greenville High School, and completed his BS in Physics at Furman University at the age of sixteen. Because his parents thought him too young to go to graduate school, he stayed another year, completing a BA in Modern Languages, before entering Duke University for his MA. He completed his Ph. D. at the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied under noted physicists, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Robert A. Millikan.[1]

Following graduation, he worked for Bell Laboratories on military projects including sonar for Air Force bombers. He became interested in masers and lasers and his work ultimately ended in his Nobel Prize in Physics. While serving as Provost of MIT, he endorsed the goal of a man on the moon and worked with NASA to effectively accomplish the goal of the 1969 lunar landing, where the astronauts placed a mirror on the lunar surface with which Townes measured, for the first time, the distance from the earth to the moon’s surface to within a quarter of an inch. During the Reagan Administration, Townes served on the advisory committee for the Space Defense Initiative.

In the decades after the lunar landing, Dr. Townes carried on research in Astrophysics, discovering the black hole in our galaxy. He continued to teach and mentor students and became widely known as a speaker. One important note about his character was that after the Nobel he never again placed his name first on a published paper, but always placed his students first, citing that “I have already made my name. It is time for me to help you make yours.” He was directly responsible for several Nobel Laureates.

In later years, he spoke often about the connection between faith and science and took opportunities to speak within academia at places such as Oxford, Harvard, Yale, etc. about his faith and how the inspiration for the laser might resemble religious inspiration and the writing of the Bible.[2] His efforts were received with interest, and in 2005 he was awarded the Templeton Prize in Religion for his efforts. In an interview in 2013, Dr. Townes recounted the early morning experience in 1951 in a park outside Washington, D. C. when the inspiration for the laser came to him.[3] In addition, Townes wrote:

“Science and religion are both universal, and basically very similar. The essential role of faith in religion is so well known that taking things on faith rather than proving them is usually taken as characteristic of religion, and as distinguishing religion from science... It is just this faith in an orderly universe, understandable to man, which allowed the basic change from an age of superstition to an age of science.”[4]

Dr. Townes continued to lecture, research, and write until his death in 2017 at ninety-nine

years old and remained a vital part of the UC-Berkley academic community.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

[1] Charles H. Townes, Charles and Tollison, Courtney, "Charles Townes Oral History" (2006). Furman University Oral Histories. 16. https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/oral-histories/16 [2] Townes, Charles. The Convergence of Science and Religion, Think Magazine. March-April 1966. townes-convergence-science-and-religion.pdf (inters.org) [3] Charles Townes. Interviewed by Michael A. Smith. University of California at Berkley. May 20, 2013. [4] Townes, Charles. The Convergence of Science and Religion.