The video records a ceremony honoring Nobel laureate Dr. Charles Townes and celebrating the 25‑year legacy of the Townes Award, which was created by the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM) Foundation. Speakers highlight Townes’s groundbreaking invention of the laser, his advisory role to U.S. presidents, and his belief that quality education is both a personal good and sound business sense. The Townes Award is presented to leaders in public service, business, education, medicine, industry, and science who embody Townes’s spirit of inquiry and innovation. The ceremony underscores how the Governor’s School, through hands‑on STEM experiences and a strong alumni pipeline (notably a 25 % rate of graduates attending Clemson University), has helped transform South Carolina’s economy from a textile‑ and tobacco‑based state to a hub for aerospace, automotive, pharmaceuticals, complex manufacturing, and tourism. Speakers stress the importance of nurturing youth creativity, connecting plants and machinery in the next industrial revolution, and envision a future where Townes Award recipients are alumni of the Governor’s School, reinforcing the school’s role as a key driver of state competitiveness and innovation.
Chapters
Dr. Townes, on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, I extend to you our warm congratulations. And now I ask you to receive the Nobel Prize from the hands of His Majesty the King.
Nobel laureate Dr. Charles Townes, Greenville native, Furman educated. Awarded the Nobel Prize for inventing the laser, Dr. Townes' story is one of innovation in South Carolina.
Dr. Charles Townes, he was a very fascinating person. He was the advisor to every president of the United States from Truman all the way through Clinton. He was a key advisor to all of those presidents. That shows how he was Perceived by the country as a great scientist.
A great scientist who never quit asking questions.
I sat in the park. It was a beautiful day and the flowers were blooming and it was sunny. Well, I thought, you know, if we could get radiation from molecules, molecules can produce very short wavelengths. We get molecules in the right kind of state and that can happen. Ah, and it was exciting.
Exciting because his discovery has touched every person and every industry in the world. For the past 25 years, Dr. Townes has been the inspiration behind the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics Foundation's Townes Award. The first recipients were Governor Carroll Campbell and Charlie Coker of Sunoco, whose foresight, along with many others, led to the founding of the school.
He knew that the education Education was the cornerstone. He had a philosophy. He said, you know, he said, if you give somebody a good education, then not only is it good for that individual for the rest of their life, but also it's just good business sense.
We were moving back then. We're moving even more now. And then we have youngsters like that that go to the School for Science and Math. There's no way to put a price tag on that. We don't know. And they go out They conquer the world.
Students who don't take no for an answer, ready to lead innovation and progress in our state and across the globe.
Approximately 25% of the Governor's School alumni have attended Clemson University. The Governor's School offers students the chance to explore many of the STEM career fields and to get hands-on experience in research that they really can't get at many other high schools in the state.
The Townes Award recipients, leaders in public service, business, education, medicine, industry, and science are a collection of trailblazers lighting the way to a brighter future for South Carolina.
The Townes Award is one of the most coveted awards given anywhere in the state of South Carolina, and we're so gratified to be with the other honorees and to tell you that this is one of the most special awards that the university has gotten.
25 years ago, this was a state that was dominated by textiles, tobacco, Today we're in aerospace, automotive, big pharma, complex manufacturing, and of course tourism is still a big part of who we are. We have fundamentally changed this state over the last 25 years into a major international center of complex manufacturing.
The next industrial revolution involves connected plants and connected machinery, and so the STEM, science, Science, technology, engineering, and math is more and more important than ever.
Always looking for new ways to educate and innovate.
We know that we can retain students in South Carolina once we get them here, if we can create the opportunities. Keep turning out those really good kids, send them to college. Some of them will go into healthcare, some of them will go into engineering, but they're all going to do something great.
Much of the creativity that our nation needs to remain competitive, and I would say strong, lies in youth. But you need a key to unlock that creativity, and I think the Governor's School for Science and Math holds the key.
My personal dream, and the dream of all the people that I work with, is that we know one day, not too far from now, a Townes Award recipient will be a graduate of the Governor's School for Science and Math, and that's going to be the best day ever.
The legacy of Dr. Charles Townes lives on, along with the leadership, innovations, and inspirations of all our honorees. South Carolina is where we are today because of you.
