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Schawlow shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on laser light.

He was one of three physicists awarded the Nobel Prize in 1981, along with Kai M. Siegbahn of Sweden and Arthur L. Schawlow of the United States.

Although Dr. Townes and Schawlow beat him to the patent office in 1959, Gould filed a counterclaim.

Three years later, Dr. Townes and his brother-in-law, Bell Labs scientist Arthur L. Schawlow, proposed applying a similar process to lightwaves instead of microwaves.

In 1960, Dr. Townes and Schawlow, both future Nobel laureates, became the first scientists to receive recognition for the optical maser when Bell Labs filed a patent.