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<html> <head> <title>Gordon Gould</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css">  </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap>This is a beta version of NNDB</td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </form></td> </tr> </table>        </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/658/000104346/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0>Gordon Gould<img src="gordongould01.jpg" height=288 width=220 align=right hspace=10 vspace=10 alt="Gordon Gould">AKA Richard Gordon GouldBorn: <a href="/lists/716/000106398/" class=proflink>17-Jul</a>-<a href="/lists/919/000105604/" class=proflink>1920</a> Birthplace: <a href="/geo/592/000069385/" class=proflink>Manhattan, NY</a> Died: <a href="/lists/146/000106825/" class=proflink>16-Sep</a>-<a href="/lists/515/000106197/" class=proflink>2005</a> Location of death: <a href="/geo/592/000069385/" class=proflink>Manhattan, NY</a> <a href="#FN1">[1]</a> Cause of death: <a href="/lists/347/000069140/" class=proflink>Infection</a> Gender: Male Religion: <a href="/lists/282/000069075/" class=proflink>Atheist</a> Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: <a href="/lists/629/000096341/" class=proflink>Physicist</a>, <a href="/lists/231/000069024/" class=proflink>Inventor</a>Nationality: United States Executive summary: Invented the laser, arguablyAdapting principles of the maser to the optical range, physicist Gordon Gould conceived of the laser, and invented its identifying acronym ("light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation."). In the earliest days of the idea, Gould discussed his conception with <a href="/people/849/000099552/">Charles H. Townes</a>, inventor of the maser, but Gould misunderstood patent law and believed he needed to construct a working model of the laser before he could apply for a patent. His work predated <a href="/people/523/000241797/">Theodore Maiman</a>'s laser-related work, and predated Townes and <a href="/people/954/000099657/">Arthur L. Schawlow</a>'s patent for the laser in 1960, but despite three decades of legal claims that he had invented the concept, Gould was unable to win his legal challenge to Townes and Schawlow's patent. He was also unable to work on the laser's initial development as much as he wanted to, due to security issues arising from what now seem absurd worries over his one-time association with a Marxist study group. He worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, separating uranium isotopes for the super-secret US endeavor to build atomic weapons, but was fired from City College of New York for refusing to name purported communists among his past associates. He convinced a private research company, TRG (Technical Research Group), to pursue his ideas for the laser, but because much of the firm's funding came from the US military he was blocked from working on the project himself. Gould was able to patent an optically pumped laser amplification, in 1977, and received patents for further laser developments including the gas-discharged laser, which is fundamental to operation of supermarket scanners. These patents made Gould a millionaire in his latter years, and many scientists and historians maintain that he deserves credit as the inventor of the laser. At his death in 2005, an obituary in the New York Times described Gould as a "figure in the invention of the laser".<hr width=25% size=1 align=left><a name="FN1">[1] Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan, NY. Father: Kenneth Gould (Scholastic magazine editor) Mother: Helen Vaughn Rue Gould Brother: David Brother: Geoffrey Wife: Glen Fulwider (m. 7-Jun-1947, div. 1953) Wife: Ruth Hill (m. 1955, div.) Wife: Marilyn Appel (m. 17-Jul-1992) Mistress: Marcie Weiss     High School: <a href="/edu/846/000165351/">Scarsdale High School, Scarsdale, NY (1937)</a>     University: <a href="/edu/955/000110625/">BS Physics, Union College (1941)</a>     University: <a href="/edu/480/000068276/">MS Physics, Yale University (1943)</a>     Teacher: <a href="/edu/691/000068487/">City College of New York (1949-54)</a>     University: <a href="/edu/477/000068273/">Columbia University (1954-58)</a>     Professor: <a href="/edu/930/000104618/">Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1967-73)</a>     Optelecom Inc. Founder & President (1973-85)     Technical Research Group Physicist (1958-67)     <a href="/honors/032/000111696/">National Inventors Hall of Fame</a> 1991     <a href="/event/807/000140387/">Draft Deferment: World War II</a>     <a href="/group/738/000055573/">Manhattan Project</a> 1943-45     <a href="/org/461/000041338/">Sigma Chi Fraternity</a>     <a href="/lists/481/000045346/">Jewish Ancestry</a>     Risk Factors: <a href="/lists/778/000064586/">Smoking</a>, <a href="/lists/829/000092553/">Emphysema</a>, <a href="/lists/352/000083103/">Marijuana</a> Author of books: The Applications of Lasers for Industrial Processing (<tt>1971</tt>, textbook; with James F Smith) <table> <tr> <td align=right valign=middle style="padding-right: 5px;">New! <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/" class="fotmlink" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #dd0000;">NNDB MAPPER</a></td> <td valign=middle align=right style="border-left: 1px solid #bbb; padding-left: 5px;">Create a map starting with</td> <td valign=middle align=right><a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=104346"><img src="/man.gif" border=0 style="padding: 2px;"></a></td> <td align=left valign=middle> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=104346">Gordon Gould</a></td> </tr> </table> Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript. 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