This week’s look back in time is about Arthur Leonard Schawlow (May 5, 1921 – April 28, 1999). He was born in Mount Vernon, New York but but moved to Cabbagetown when he was 3 years old (his Mother was Canadian). He attended Winchester Public School, the Model School at Church St. and Gould St. (a precursor school to Ryerson University) and the University of Toronto.
He was an avid Jazz enthusiast, but is more well known for his work as a physicist. He returned to the United States in his late 20’s and was awarded a 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work creating the laser.
There is a Cabbagetown People plaque located at 436 Sackville St. and Schawlow Lane is named for him.
Read more about Arthur Schawlow on cabbagetownpeople.ca
Read more about Arthur Schawlow on wikipedia.org
Photo by Jose Mercado / Stanford News Service (Stanford News Service) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons