Arthur Leonard Schawlow (PhD, Nobel)

Dr. Arthur Leonard Schawlow, an American physicist, is the co-inventor of the laser with Charles Townes. His pioneering use of the laser for precise atomic energy level measurements earned him a share of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was raised in his Canadian mother's Protestant faith, while his father was a Russian Jew. After earning his PhD at the University of Toronto, Dr. Schawlow did post doctorate research at Columbia, later spending 10 years at Bell Labs in the U.S. He then joined the faculty at Stanford, where he served for the next 35 years (1961 to 1996). In 1951, Dr Schawlow married his post doctoral advisor's (Dr. Townes) sister, and together they had three children. One of his children, His son, Arthur Jr., is autistic, with very little speech ability. He considers himself to be an orthodox Protestant Christian and attends a Methodist Church as noted in the following quote: "It seems to me that when confronted with the marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how. The only possible answers are religious. . . . I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life."