This award was established in 1980 to honor Charles Hard Townes, whose pioneering contributions to masers and lasers led to the development of the field of quantum electronics. It is given to an individual or a group of individuals for outstanding experimental or theoretical work, discovery or invention in the field of quantum electronics. Bell Laboratories originally endowed the award. Hewlett-Packard, The Perkin Fund, and students and colleagues of Charles Townes contributed generously in a Townes Award Endowment Campaign.

Charles Hard Townes Award Winners

Year	Name
2008	Robert R. Alfano
2007	Serge Haroche
2006	Orazio Svelto
2005	Paul B. Corkum
2004	Erich Ippen
2003	David Hanna
2002	Charles V. Shank
2001	A. David Buckingham
2000	Richard G. Brewer
1999	Charles H. Henry
1998	Marlan O. Scully
1997	Linn Mollenauer
1996	Chung L. Tang
1995	Ivan P. Kaminow
1994	Joseph H. Eberly
1993	Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
1992	Nick Holonyak, Jr.
1991	Elias Snitzer
1990	Herbert Walther
1989	Daniel J. Bradley
1988	Arthur Ashkin
1987	Herman A. Haus
1986	Yuen-Ron Shen
1985	S. E. Harris
1984	Veniamin P. Chebotaev
	John L. Hall
1983	Robert W. Hellwarth
1982	C. Kumar Patel
1981	James Gordon
	Herbert Zeiger