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Charles
Townes Honored at January 22, 2001
Press Release The Third International Conference on Optical SETI (Optical SETI III) is being held this week (January 22-24) in San Jose as part of SPIE's Photonics West Symposium. The conference program schedule may be found at: www.coseti.org/4273-sch.htm. A surprise presentation was made to Nobel Laureate, Professor Charles Townes, after his talk today. Professor, Don O'Shea, immediate past president of SPIE did the honors. The award, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of optical SETI and Charlie's contributions to both lasers and optical SETI, was sponsored by: International Society for Optical Engineering
(SPIE) The award consists of an acrylic trophy, a high-radiance frequency-doubled semiconductor-pumped 532 nm (green) laser pointer in rosewood case and a certificate (see below for images). The trophy, laser pointer and rosewood case are each suitably inscribed. The conference and presentation were held in the Hyatt Courtyard, Hyatt St. Claire Hotel, across the road from the San Jose Convention Center, after Charles Townes' conference paper: Reflections on Forty Years of Optical SETI -- Looking Forward and Looking Backward. The award ceremony was followed by a one-hour press conference presented by The Planetary Society, in which Professor Townes participated. The print and electronic media are free to use these pictures for articles. More pictures will be posted of this event over the coming weekend. Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley
From left to right: Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley, OSETI III Chairman, Professor Don O'Shea, last year's SPIE President, and Professor Charles Townes, the honoree. Charles Townes can be seen admiring the acrylic trophy just presented to him by Don O'Shea. Stuart Kingsley is also shown holding his long-awaited Bruno Award that had been presented to him by Dr. Paul Shuch, Director of the SETI League, a few moments after Charles Townes received his award. Mrs. Francis Townes, Dr. Lou Friedman of the Planetary Society, Professor Frank Drake and Dr. Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute were present for the ceremony, in a room packed with Townes' admirers.
Trophy
The Inscription Reads: Presented to
SPIE’s Third
International Conference on the The two papers on lasers that forever changed our world A.
L. Schawlow and C. H. Townes, “Infrared and Optical Masers,” Physical
Review, December 15, 1958. R.
N. Schwartz and C. H. Townes, “Interstellar and Interplanetary
Communication by Optical Masers,” Nature, April 15, 1961.
Rosewood Case
The Inscription Reads: SPIE’s Third International Conference on
the
Laser Pointer - Clip End
Laser Pointer - Output End
The Inscription Reads:
Award Certificate
The Certificate Reads: Presented to Charles H. Townes For The Laser and For Optical SETI SPIE’s Third International Conference on the Award sponsored by:
Beam
Selected Pictures from the Award Ceremony
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