The following autobiography is taken from
the Nobel Foundation (http://www.nobel.se) with permission.
I was born in Mount Vernon, New York,
U.S.A. on May 5, 1921. My father had come from Europe a decade
earlier. He left his home in Riga to study electrical engineering
at Darmstadt, but arrived too late for the beginning of the term.
Therefore, he went on to visit his brother in New York, and never
returned either to Europe or to electrical engineering. My mother
was a Canadian and, at her urging, the family moved to Toronto in
1924. I attended public schools there, Winchester elementary
school, the Normal Model School attached to the teacher's
college, and Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute (high school).
As a boy, I was always interested in scientific things,
electrical, mechanical or astronomical, and read nearly
everything that the library could provide on these subjects. I
intended to try to go to the University of Toronto to study radio
engineering, and my parents encouraged me. Unfortunately my high
school years, 1932 to 1937, were in the deepest part of the great
economic depression. My father's salary as one of the many agents
for a large insurance company could not cover the cost of a
college education for my sister, Rosemary, and me. Indeed, at
that time few high school graduates continued their education.
Only three or four out of our high school class of sixty or so
students were able to go to a unversity.
There were, at that time, no scholarships in engineering, but we
were both fortunate enough to win scholarships in the faculty of
Arts of the University of Toronto. My sister's was for English
literature, and mine was for mathematics and physics. Physics
seemed pretty close to radio engineering, and so that was what I
pursued. It now seems to me to have been a most fortunate chance,
for I do not have the patience with design details that an
engineer must have. Physics has given me a chance to concentrate
on concepts and methods, and I have enjoyed it greatly.
With jobs as scarce as they were in those years, we had to have
some occupation in mind to justify college studies. A scientific
career was something that few of us even dreamed possible, and
nearly all of the entering class expected to teach high school
mathematics or physics. However, before we graduated in 1941
Canada was at war, and all of us were involved in some way. I
taught classes to armed service personnel at the University of
Toronto until 1944, and then worked on microwave antenna
development at a radar factory.
In 1945, graduate studies could resume, and I returned to the
University. It was by then badly depleted in staff and equipment
by the effects of the depression and the war, but it did have a
long tradition in optical spectroscopy. There were two highly
creative physics professors working on spectroscopy, Malcolm F.
Crawford and Harry L. Welsh. I took courses from both of them,
and did my thesis research with Crawford. It was a very rewarding
experience, for he gave the students good problems and the
freedom to learn by making our own mistakes. Moreover, he was
always willing to discuss physics, and even to speculate about
where future advances might be found.
A Carbide and Carbon Chemicals postdoctoral fellowship took me to
Columbia University to work with Charles H. Townes. What a
marvelous place Columbia was then, under I. I. Rabi's leadership!
There were no less than eight future Nobel laureates in the
physics department during my two years there. Working with
Charles Townes was particularly stimulating. Not only was he the
leader in research on microwave spectroscopy, but he was
extraordinarily effective in getting the best from his students
and colleagues. He would listen carefully to the confused
beginnings of an idea, and join in developing whatever was
worthwhile in it, without ever dominating the discussions. Best
of all, he introduced me to his youngest sister, Aurelia, who
became my wife in 1951.
From 1951 to 1961, I was a physicist at Bell Telephone
Laboratories. There my research was mostly on superconductivity,
with some studies of nuclear quadrupole resonance. On weekends I
worked with Charles Townes on our book Microwave Spectroscopy,
which had been started while I was at Columbia and was published
in 1955. In 1957 and 1958, while mainly still continuing
experiments on superconductivity, I worked with Charles Townes to
see what would be needed to extend the principles of the maser to
much shorter wavelengths, to make an optical maser or, as it is
now known, a laser. Thereupon, I began work on optical properties
and spectra of solids which might be relevant to laser materials,
and then on lasers.
Since 1961, I have been a professor of physics at Stanford
University and was chairman of the department of physics from
1966 to 1970. In 1978 I was appointed J. G. Jackson and C. J.
Wood Professor of Physics. At Stanford, it has been a pleasure to
do physics with an outstanding group of graduate students,
occasional postdoctoral research associates and visitors. Most
especially the interaction with Professor Theodor W. Hansch has
been continually delightful and stimulating. Our technicians,
Frans Alkemade and Kenneth Sherwin have been invaluable in
constructing apparatus and keeping it in operation. My secretary
for the past nineteen years, Mrs. Fred-a Jurian, provides
whatever order that can be found amidst the chaos of my office.
Much of the time, my thoughts are stimulated there by the sounds
of traditional jazz from my large record collection.
My wife is a musician, a mezzo soprano and choral conductor. We
have a son, Arthur Keith, and two daughters, Helen Aurelia and
Edith Ellen. Helen has studied French literature at Stanford, the
Sorbonne, and at the University of California in Berkeley, and is
now on the staffof Stanford University. Edith graduated from
Stanford this year with a major in psychology.
Awards
Stuart Ballantine Medal (1962); Thomas Young Medal and Prize
(1963); Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Prize (1964); California
Scientist of the Year (1973);
Frederick Ives Medal (1976); Marconi International Fellowship
(1977).
Honorary doctorates from University of Ghent, Belgium (1968),
University of Toronto, Canada (1970), University of Bradford,
England (1970). Honorary
professor, East China Normal University, Shanghai (1979).
Member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
President, Optical Society of America (1975)
President, American Physical Society (1981)
(Added in 1991): I retired from teaching and became Professor
Emeritus in 1991. My wife died in an automobile accident in May,
1991. My daughter Helen is now Assistant Professor of French at
the University of Wisconsin. From Helen and her sister Edith, I
now have four grandchildren.
Awards
Arthur Schawlow Medal, Laser Institute of America (1982)
U.S. National Medal of Science (1991)
Honorary doctorates from University of Alabama, U.S.A. (1984),
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (1986), University of Lund,
Sweden (1988)
FromNobel Lectures, Physics 1981-1990.
Dr Schawlow died in 1999.