What is Charles Hard Townes?
{{Infobox scientist | name = Charles Hard Townes | image =Charles Hard Townes-Nibib-2007-retouched.jpg |image_size = 200px | caption = Townes in 2007 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1915|7|28}} | birth_place = [[Greenville, South Carolina|Greenville]], [[South Carolina]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|1|27|1915|7|28}} | death_place = [[Oakland, California|Oakland]], [[California]] | nationality = American | field = [[Physics]] | work_institution = [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]]<br>[[Bell Telephone Laboratories|Bell Labs]]<br>[[Institute for Defense Analyses]]<br>[[Columbia University|Columbia]]<br>[[MIT]]<br>[[University Of Michigan]] | alma_mater = [[Furman University]] <small>([[Bachelor of Science|B.S.]] & [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]])</small><br>[[Duke University]] <small>([[Master of Arts (postgraduate)|M.A.]])</small><br>[[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]] <small>([[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]])</small> | doctoral_advisor = William Smythe | doctoral_students = [[Ali Javan]]<br>[[James P. Gordon]]<br>[[Robert W. Boyd (physicist)|Robert Boyd]]<br>[[Raymond Y. Chiao]] | known_for = Inventing the [[Maser]] | prizes = [[Comstock Prize in Physics]] {{small|(1958)}}<br>[[Young Medal and Prize]] {{small|(1963)}}<br>[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] {{small|(1964)}}<br>[[IEEE Medal of Honor]] {{small|(1967)}}<br>[[National Medal of Science]] {{small|(1982)}}<br> [[Lomonosov Gold Medal]] {{small|(2000)}}<br>[[Vannevar Bush Award]] {{small|(2006)}}<br>[[SPIE Gold Medal]] {{small|(2010)}} | footnotes = }} {{nobelprize|Physics}}'''Charles Hard Townes''' (July 28, 1915 &ndash; January 27, 2015) was an [[Americans|American]] [[Nobel Prize|Nobel Prize-winning]] [[physicist]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1964/townes-bio.html|title=Charles H. Townes - Biographical|publisher=Nobelprize.org|date=March 2003|access-date=2014-07-29}}</ref> and educator. Townes is known for his work on the theory and application of t