The final lecture of the WINLAB seminar series was scheduled to be given by Rajiv Laroia (Senior VP, Founder and CTO, Qualcomm Flarion Technologies) today and I decided not to go to Crawford Hill. Jerry Foschini had told me that I should not miss the picnic, but I really wanted to attend Rajiv Laroia's talk. The picnic was to celebrate the 80th birthday of Jim Gordon, who was one of the pioneers in quantum electronics. He used to work in the building and retired a few years ago. His experiment to make the MASER work had dawned the era of quantum electronics.
Jerry called me at 5 PM to ask me if I wanted to discuss a presentation I had to give at Crawford Hill on Thursday. He was very excited about a speech by Charles H. Townes, who was the thesis advisor of Jim Gordon. It is just amazing that Charles Townes, 93, flew a red-eye flight from CA just to attend his student's 80th birthday celebrations at NJ and flew back immediately to CA -- the reason he gave was he had a busy schedule!
Charles Townes won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1964 for his contributions to fundamental work in quantum electronics leading to the development of the maser and laser. Jerry was understandably very excited when he was telling me about Townes's talk. Here are some things he told me over the phone:
When Townes was appointed an associate professor at Columbia University, he was dissuaded by I. I. Rabi and Polykarp Kusch, the then department chair of the Physics department of Columbia University not to pursue his ideas about making an oscillator at longer centimeter wavelengths, where ammonia has intense resonances. Rabi and Kusch were outstanding physicists themselves -- both won the Nobel prize in physics. But as an associate professor, Townes had tenure. A department chairman could not fire him simply because of a disagreement or incompetence. "No," he said. "I think the experiment will work and I am going to continue." Among other people who thought that this experiment will not work were Neils Bohr and John Von Neumann.
Two months later, Jim Gordon rushed into the class that Townes was teaching and excitedly told him, "It's working!". The whole class followed Townes and Gordon to see the demonstration of the maser.
Jerry was really excited that he shook hands with Charles Townes and got to speak to him. I was so inspired at the other end of the line. Here is a great man (well known for his contributions to communications theory) getting inspired by another great man! I surely missed seeing a great scientist. But finally Jerry told, "Chandru, I will treat you for the picnic on Thursday". He made my day!!
Jerry called me at 5 PM to ask me if I wanted to discuss a presentation I had to give at Crawford Hill on Thursday. He was very excited about a speech by Charles H. Townes, who was the thesis advisor of Jim Gordon. It is just amazing that Charles Townes, 93, flew a red-eye flight from CA just to attend his student's 80th birthday celebrations at NJ and flew back immediately to CA -- the reason he gave was he had a busy schedule!
Charles Townes won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1964 for his contributions to fundamental work in quantum electronics leading to the development of the maser and laser. Jerry was understandably very excited when he was telling me about Townes's talk. Here are some things he told me over the phone:
When Townes was appointed an associate professor at Columbia University, he was dissuaded by I. I. Rabi and Polykarp Kusch, the then department chair of the Physics department of Columbia University not to pursue his ideas about making an oscillator at longer centimeter wavelengths, where ammonia has intense resonances. Rabi and Kusch were outstanding physicists themselves -- both won the Nobel prize in physics. But as an associate professor, Townes had tenure. A department chairman could not fire him simply because of a disagreement or incompetence. "No," he said. "I think the experiment will work and I am going to continue." Among other people who thought that this experiment will not work were Neils Bohr and John Von Neumann.
Two months later, Jim Gordon rushed into the class that Townes was teaching and excitedly told him, "It's working!". The whole class followed Townes and Gordon to see the demonstration of the maser.
Jerry was really excited that he shook hands with Charles Townes and got to speak to him. I was so inspired at the other end of the line. Here is a great man (well known for his contributions to communications theory) getting inspired by another great man! I surely missed seeing a great scientist. But finally Jerry told, "Chandru, I will treat you for the picnic on Thursday". He made my day!!
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