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Gordon Gould
American physicist
Quick Facts
- In full:
- Richard Gordon Gould
- Born:
- July 17, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S.
- Died:
- Sept. 16, 2005, New York (aged 85)
- Founder:
- Optelecom
- Subjects Of Study:
- laser
- Role In:
- Manhattan Project
Gordon Gould (born July 17, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 16, 2005, New York) was an American physicist who played an important role in early laser research and coined the word laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). Gould received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., in 1941 and a master’s degree in physics from Yale University two years later. He then worked on the Manhattan Project but was released from the project because of his membership in a communist political group (which he left in 1948). He started teaching physics at the ...(100 of 351 words)