Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Townes, Charles Hard, 1915–2015, American physicist and educator, b. Greenville, S.C. He was educated at Furman Univ., Duke, and the California Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1939), was on the tech...

(Encyclopedia) Schawlow, Arthur Leonard shôˈlō [key], 1921–99, American physicist, b. Mount Vernon, N.Y., grad. Univ. of Toronto (Ph.D. 1949). Although his research focused on optics, in particular, lasers and ...

(Encyclopedia) Reade, Charles, 1814–84, English novelist and dramatist. He is noted for his historical romance The Cloister and the Hearth. After being elected a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, he was called t...

(Encyclopedia) Basov, Nikolai Gennadiyevich nyĭkəlīˈ gĕnäˈdēyĕˌvĭch bäˈsəf [key], 1922–2001, Russian physicist and educator, b. Usman. He worked with A. M. Prokhorov to develop a technique for amplif...

(Encyclopedia) Wright, Charles, 1935–, American poet, b. Pickwick Dam, Tenn. While in the army in Italy (1957–61), he began reading Pound's Cantos, which, along with his Southern roots and ancient Chinese poetry...

(Encyclopedia) Bukowski, Charles, 1920–94, American underground poet and fiction writer, b. Andernach, Germany. His family immigrated to the United States in 1922, settling in Los Angeles. A hard-drinking unskille...

(Encyclopedia) Bloembergen, Nicolaas nēˈkəläs blo͞omˈbĕrgən, –bûrgən [key], 1920–2017, American physicist, b. Dordrecht, the Netherlands. Educated in the Netherlands, he began work at Harvard in 1946, ...

(Encyclopedia) Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich əlyĭksänˈdər mēkhīˈləvĭch prôˈkhərəf [key], 1916–2002, Russian physicist, b. Atherton, Queensland, Australia. In 1923 he was taken to the Soviet Union...

(Encyclopedia) Dickens, Charles, 1812–70, English author, b. Portsmouth, one of the world's most popular, prolific, and skilled novelists. Charles Dickens is one of the giants of English literature. He wrote fro...

(Encyclopedia) Gide, Charles zhēd [key], 1847–1932, French economist. A professor at the universities of Bordeaux, Montpellier, and Paris, Gide was an expert on international monetary problems. He also played an...