Remarks on Presenting the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Award to Dr. All Javan and Dr. Theodore H. Maiman
Dr. Javan, Dr. Maiman, members of the Hertz Foundation, ladies and gentlemen, friends:
You have made a significant contribution to scientific knowledge and I welcome all of you to the White House Cabinet Room to recognize that this morning.
The man for whom this award is named has also made a very vital contribution. This man came to us as a boy and he made our land his land. America was his adopted land. He believed in America and he loved our way of life.
One of his last acts was to attempt to guarantee that that way of life would be preserved for future generations, for our children and our children's children. So he took the fruits of his success, and he made them a foundation from which men like yourselves could reach into the unknown.
What you have achieved as brilliant, imaginative members of a free society, and what I know you are going to achieve in the future, is really testimony to what free men can do when they unite in purpose and in patriotism. So I hope that you will permit me this morning to congratulate you, to wish you well, to exchange greetings and renew friendships with some of my old friends who are here, and to thank you for coming and giving me this opportunity, as President of this country, to participate in a small way in your moment of success.
Note: The President spoke at 1:45 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to the recipients of the award. Dr. Ali Jayan and Dr. Theodore H. Maiman, developers of the laser beam.
Dr. Javan, professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a native of Iran, was honored for his pioneering work in the stimulated emission of light, which resulted in the first reduction to practice of a high precision, continuous wave gas laser. His work was done in 1959-1960 while he was on the technical staff of the Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Dr. Maiman, president of Korad Corp., a subsidiary of Union Carbide, was recognized for similar work in the field of light emission, which resulted in the reduction to practice of the first operating laser, a pulsed high power solid state laser. His work was also done in 1959-1960.
The Fannie and John Hertz Award in the field of applied physical sciences consisted of $20,000 and a bronze medallion. The recipients were selected by a committee of prominent scientists headed by Dr. Augustus B. Kinzel, president and executive officer of the Salk Institute.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks on Presenting the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Award to Dr. All Javan and Dr. Theodore H. Maiman Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239228
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