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PHYSICIST

Charles H. Townes

1915 - 2015

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Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated with both maser and laser devices. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov. Townes was an adviser to the United States Government, meeting every US president from Harry S. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Charles H. Townes has received more than 378,987 page views. His biography is available in 70 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 69 in 2019). Charles H. Townes is the 178th most popular physicist (up from 189th in 2019), the 799th most popular biography from United States (up from 875th in 2019) and the 32nd most popular American Physicist.

Charles H. Townes is most famous for his invention of the laser in 1958. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov for his work on the maser.

Memorability Metrics

  • 380k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 63.66

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 70

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 10.23

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.31

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Charles H. Townes ranks 178 out of 717. Before him are Martinus J. G. Veltman, Hannes Alfvén, Pyotr Kapitsa, Edward Mills Purcell, Arthur Ashkin, and James Cronin. After him are Emilio Segrè, Edme Mariotte, Robert Hofstadter, Klaus von Klitzing, Louis Néel, and Norman Foster Ramsey Jr..

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1915, Charles H. Townes ranks 27. Before him are Sviatoslav Richter, Saul Bellow, Fred Hoyle, Hu Yaobang, Les Paul, and Curd Jürgens. After him are Robert Hofstadter, Norman Foster Ramsey Jr., Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Shoichi Yokoi, Robert A. Dahl, and Thomas Huckle Weller. Among people deceased in 2015, Charles H. Townes ranks 36. Before him are Tariq Aziz, Manoel de Oliveira, Wes Craven, Oliver Sacks, Yves Chauvin, and James Last. After him are Yevgeny Primakov, Günter Schabowski, Udo Lattek, Irwin Rose, Colleen McCullough, and Benedict Anderson.

Others Born in 1915

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Others Deceased in 2015

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Charles H. Townes ranks 799 out of 18,182. Before him are H. H. Holmes (1861), John Reed (1887), Charlie Sheen (1965), James Cronin (1931), Sam Peckinpah (1925), and Lee Marvin (1924). After him are Joseph Campbell (1904), Robert Solow (1924), Danny Glover (1946), John Belushi (1949), Theodore Schultz (1902), and Hilary Putnam (1926).

Others born in United States

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Among PHYSICISTS In United States

Among physicists born in United States, Charles H. Townes ranks 32. Before him are James Rainwater (1917), Leon Cooper (1930), Robert H. Goddard (1882), Edward Mills Purcell (1912), Arthur Ashkin (1922), and James Cronin (1931). After him are Robert Hofstadter (1915), Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (1915), John Archibald Wheeler (1911), John L. Hall (1934), Frederick Reines (1918), and Willis Lamb (1913).

American born Physicists

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