On Tuesday, the U.S. — and the world — lost one of its great innovators. Charles Hard Townes, the central figure in the development of the laser, passed away at the age of 99.

Before lasers existed, Townes invented their precursor, masers (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), for which he and his colleagues received the physics Nobel Prize in 1964.

The maser, which depended upon Albert Einstein's principle of stimulated emission, was a contentious project among Townes peers. They thought the work was doomed to fail on grounds that it violated Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
What Townes and his colleagues succeeded in doing has left an indelible mark on not only the world of health care, but countless industries, and the human imagination itself. Almost 60 years old, the word "laser" still retains a futuristic ring to it.

Townes' resume includes other out-of-this-world accomplishments. Using masers and lasers, he was among the first to detect complex molecules in outer space and measure the mass of the black hole at the center of our galaxy.

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