Charles Townes
Type: Person
As of November 2026, Charles Townes has been mentioned in one podcast episode on Stuff You Should Know (Feb 2026). Discussed as a 1950s Bell Labs physicist who built the maser (microwave analog), described as 'halfway to laser town.'.
Charles Hard Townes 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. Truman (1945) to Bill Clinton (1999).
| Mentioned in | 1 episode on 1 podcast (as of November 2026) |
|---|---|
| First heard | Feb 2026 on Stuff You Should Know |
| Role | Physicist |
| Affiliation | Bell Labs (as stated in episode) |
Who talks about Charles Townes on podcasts?
Charles Townes came up; the most recent mention was Feb 2026 on Stuff You Should Know.
- How Lasers Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW on Stuff You Should Know (Feb 2026)
What is Charles Townes mentioned alongside?
Works at: Bell Labs