Gordon Gould

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...