The Frances and Charles Townes Fellowship
Frances and Charles Townes Fellowship
The Frances and Charles Townes Fellowship is one of the Department of Physics' distinguished graduate student awards. Established in 1999 through the generosity of Mrs. Lee M. Gunther-Mohr and Dr. Gerard Gunther-Mohr, the fellowship honors Nobel Prize-winning physicist Charles H. Townes, whose pioneering work on the maser was conducted at Columbia University. The fellowship recognizes outstanding graduate students conducting research in optics, condensed matter physics, and related fields.
Eligibility and Selection
The fellowship is awarded annually to one or more exceptional Physics PhD students whose research demonstrates significant promise and achievement in areas aligned with Townes' scientific legacy. Recipients are selected by the department based on research excellence and scholarly contributions.
About Charles H. Townes
Charles H. Townes served as Chair of Columbia's Department of Physics and received the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for his fundamental work leading to the development of the maser and laser. His contributions transformed modern physics and enabled technologies that continue to shape scientific discovery and everyday life.
Distinguished Townes Fellows
- 2003: Feng Wang
- 2005: Yang Wu
- 2006 Yuanbo Zhang
- 2007: Duohua Song
- 2008: Erik Henriksen
- 2009: Jeremy Carlo
- 2012: Andrea Young
- 2012: Dmitri Efetov
- 2013: Liuyan Zhao
- 2014: Carl Ortiz
- 2014: Yilei Li
- 2015: Lian Liu
- 2016: Benjamin Frandsen
- 2016: Michael McDonald
- 2017: Drew Edelberg
- 2018: Geoffrey Iwata
- 2020: Alexander Kerelsky
- 2020: Aaron Sternbach
- 2021: Weijun Yuan
- 2021: Yilun Gao
- 2022: Varun Varun
- 2022: Alex Hernandes Casares
- 2022: Joseph Lee
- 2022: Eric Sierra Garzo
- 2023: Haneul Kwak
- 2023: Lifan Zhang
- 2023: Yuchen Lin
- 2024: Jikai Xu
- 2024: Asaf Toprakci
- 2025: Jasleen Kaur