Gould, Gordon

▪ 2006

      American physicist (b. July 17, 1920, New York, N.Y.—d. Sept. 16, 2005, New York City), played an important role in early laser research and coined the word laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). He came up with the idea of the laser and its name in 1957 while he was a physics graduate student at Columbia University, New York City. Believing that he first needed to have a working prototype, he waited until 1959 to apply for a patent, but by that time others had filed such an application and his was rejected. After many years of litigation, however, he prevailed, and in 1977 he was issued the first of the four U.S. basic laser patents that he was eventually granted. Gould was inducted into the (U.S.) National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991.

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