Szilard, Schawlow Inducted into Inventor's Hall of Fame

Two renowned physicists and long-standing APS members were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio in September. The late Leo Szilard was honored for the invention of the nuclear reactor. His co-inventor, Enrico Fermi, had already been inducted. Nobel laureate Arthur L. Schawlow was honored for his invention of the laser, together with Charles Townes, who is also already a Hall of Fame member.

The APS has established awards in honor of each of these physicists. The Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest was established in 1974 by the APS Forum on Physics and Society, to recognize outstanding accomplishments by physicists in promoting the use of physics for the benefit of society in such areas as the environment, arms control and science policy. The Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science was established in 1991 by the NEC Corporation. It is intended to recognize outstanding contributions to basic research that uses lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interaction with light.