ARTHUR L. SCHAWLOW

Arthur L. Schawlow (1921, Mount Vernon, New York – 1999, Stanford, California) was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1981 together with Nicolas Bloembergen (b. 1920) "for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy". This was half of the 1981 physics prize. The other half was awarded to Kai M. Siegbahn (b. 1918) "for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy". Schawlow won a scholarship in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Toronto, and he pursued his studies in physics. After war service, he continued his graduate studies at Toronto and then became a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University under Charles Townes. After that, he worked as a physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories between 1951 and 1961 and then as Professor of Physics at Stanford University until his retirement in 1991. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and other learned societies. He received the Arthur Schawlow medal of the Laser Institute of America (1982), the National Medal of Science (1991), and numerous other distinctions. Clarence and Jane Larson recorded a video interview with Arthur Schawlow on December 28, 1984, at Stanford University. We are grateful to Charles Townes for having checked and corrected our transcripts.