Townes, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, is a Nobel laureate in physics and a winner of the national Medal of Science, and is most noted for his invention of the laser.
Born in Greenville, S.C. in 1915, Townes spent his professional career at Columbia University, Bell Laboratories and MIT before heading to Berkeley.
He served as provost at MIT, and has been a national science adviser, a key player in the Apollo space program, and a consultant to the telescopic search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
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He will receive an honorary Doctorate of Laws today.