Charles Hard Townes, pioneer in science-religion dialogue, dies at 99
Charles Hard Townes, a Nobel laureate who helped invent the laser and a pioneer in the dialogue on science and religion, died January 27 at age 99.
Townes, professor emeritus of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, also won the $1.5 million Templeton Prize for Progress toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities for 2005.
Upon receiving the award, Townes said, “I believe there is no long-range question more important than the purpose and meaning of our lives and our universe,” according to a statement from the John Templeton Foundation.
