Nobel Prize-Winner Charles H. Townes Dies At 99

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Charles H. Townes died on Tuesday. He was 99.

Townes is remembered for developing the laser's predecessor, the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), which would help revolutionize everything from medicine to manufacturing. 

"Charlie Townes had an enormous impact on physics and society in general," said Steven Boggs, the chairman of the physics department at Berkeley, via Kansas.com. 

Townes had been unwell right before his death on the way to an Oakland hospital, according to University of California, Berkeley officials.

The laser helped pave the way for other scientific discoveries that revolutionized a wide variety of aspects, including DVD players, printers, computer networks, metal cutters, vision correction and even tattoo removal.

Townes was also an active member of the United Church of Christ. He won the award the Templeton Prize in 2005 for his contributions in "affirming life's spiritual dimension."

"Science tries to understand what our universe is like and how it works, including humans," Townes wrote upon receiving the award, according to ABC News. "My own view is that, while science and religion may seem different, they have many similarities, and should interact and enlighten each other."

He was a faculty member at Columbia University and used his research on the study of spectroscopy, otherwise known as the dispersion of an object's light into component colors.

He lived in Berkeley and is survived by his wife and four daughters, Linda Rosenwein, Ellen Townes-Anderson, Carla Kessler and Holly Townes.

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