Charles Townes: The Nobel Laureate Who Fathered Optical SETI

Jun. 13, 2003
by Diane Richards - Marketing and Communications Officer
Fathers Day came one week early to the SETI community this year as Dr. Frank Drake, father of modern SETI, presented an award bearing his name to Dr. Charles Townes, Nobel laureate, inventor of the laser, and father of optical SETI.

Addressing a crowd of astronomers, astrophysicists, students, and SETI Institute friends, Townes reflected upon the challenges and joys of bringing new ideas into the world, and offered sage advice for the current generation reaping the benefits of his visionary ideas. As he accepted the 2002 Frank Drake Award for Innovation in SETI and Life in the Universe Research, Townes -- who also recently accepted a seat on the Institutes Board of Trustees-- spoke on themes that are strongly resonant for SETI researchers: taking chances, strength in conviction, and the pursuit of a passion.

Sometimes launching a new idea into the world can have its trials. Townes recalled the pessimism of eminent colleagues as he developed the lasers precursor, the maser, while a Professor of Physics at Columbia University. The Physics Department Chairman, Nobel laureate Isador Rabi urged Townes to abandon the maser work for more productive lines of research. Townes maser idea met similar skepticism from quantum mechanics pioneer Niels Bohr and famed mathematician John von Neumann.

Townes remained strong in his convictions that the maser would work and would yield important scientific dividends. Undaunted by the criticism of his renowned colleagues, he persevered, and in 1954, the first maser was born. Townes first baby would soon prove an enormous boon to radio astronomers who would exploit the masers capability to greatly amplify weak signals from space.

Microwave amplification was only the beginning. Knowing that the maser amplification technique should work with other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, Townes turned his attention to the optical range and in 1958 published, with Arthur Schawlow, a paper on an optical maser, later to be known as laser.

Townes immediate and prescient grasp of the devices potential for communications outpaced that of Bell Laboratory, his employer. Townes described the Labs initial reluctance to patent the invention. To most people, the laser seemed a mere novelty that made "pretty spots of red light on the wall." Undaunted, Townes pressed on, eventually convincing Bell Labs of the inventions importance.

Townes recognition of the lasers communication potential directly touched upon another interest. After reading the groundbreaking paper on SETI published in 1959, by Morrison and Cocconi, in the journal Nature, Townes realized that distant and technologically advanced civilizations could just as easily exploit the optical and infrared portion of the spectrum as the radio portion. He wrote his first paper on optical SETI in 1961, one year after Frank Drake conducted the worlds first scientific SETI experiment, Project Ozma.

Three decades passed before laser technology matured to the point where sensitive and accurate searches in the optical spectrum became practical. During a landmark 1997 panel convened by the SETI Institute to chart the course of SETI research for the first two decades of the 21st Century, Townes participation catalyzed the thinking of the working groups optical team. Even as the working group continued deliberations, SETI researchers Paul Horowitz of Harvard and Dan Werthimer of the University of California each initiated early optical SETI searches at their institutions. Townes foresight and consistent championing of optical SETI thus garnered him the Frank Drake Award for Innovation in SETI and Life in the Universe Research.

As Townes concluded his remarks at the awards ceremony, he reminded the crowd that it is important to pursue ideas that may reside at the far edges of possibility; this is how knowledge grows. In this light, SETI is extremely important, he noted. The ramifications of finding a signal, or of not finding a signal, after thoroughly searching our neighborhood of stars, using the best scientific tools we have, are equally profound, and either result tells us something significant about our planet and ourselves.

Each June, we gratefully acknowledge our fathers, the men who build our strong foundations when we are growing and become valued advisors to us in our adulthood. Men who help shape our dreams. Before Townes stepped from the dais, he left his listeners with an intriguing speculation. Perhaps in time, he ventured, future generations may benefit from lasers far more powerful. And perhaps similar technology on distant planets will be in use, flashing cosmic greetings bright enough to be seen by a backyard stargazer viewing the sky without the aid of a telescope.

A lovely thought for a summer evening with the family gathered beneath a sky thick with stars.

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Charles Townes: The Nobel Laureate Who Fathered Optical SETI