William R. Bennett

William Ralph Bennett, Jr. (born January 30, 1930 in Jersey City , † June 29, 2008 in Haverford , Pennsylvania ) was an American physicist . Bennett was a co-inventor of the first gas laser , a helium-neon laser , at Bell Laboratories in 1960 .

Live and act

Bennett graduated from Princeton University and received his PhD from Columbia University . From 1962 to 2000 he was (since 1998 retired) professor at Yale University . From 1972 he was there "Charles Baldwin Sawyer Professor for Applied Science and Physics" and from 1981 to 1987 Master of Silliman College . In addition to co-inventing the helium-neon laser in 1960 (together with Ali Javan and Donald Herriott ), he also developed various other lasers such as the argon-ion laser and discovered the spectral hole burning effect in gas lasers, which he used Frequency stabilization used by lasers.

With his daughter, the medical professor Jean Bennett Maguire, he developed the "real time spectral phonocardiography" method in cardiology . He also studied the effects of electromagnetic radiation on humans. He studied the physics of musical instruments and played the clarinet in various amateur symphony orchestras.

Bennett wrote eight books and over 120 scientific articles. He held twelve patents. In 1963 he was a Sloan Research Fellow and in 1967 a Guggenheim Fellow and Fellow of the American Physical Society . In 1965 he received the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award for the invention of the gas laser ; In 1974 he became a Fellow of the IEEE (1997 Life Fellow).

Books (selection)

Introduction to Computer Applications for Non-Science Students . Prentice-Hall, Englewood-Cliffs 1976
Scientific and Engineering Problem Solving with the Computer . Prentice-Hall, Englewood-Cliffs 1976
The Physics of Gas Lasers . Gordon and Breach, London 1976
Atomic Gas Laser Transition Data . Plenum Publishing Company, New York 1979
Health and Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields . Yale University Press, New Haven 1994

Web links

Raphael Shapiro: Physicist Bennett dies. In: Yale News. September 8, 2008 (English).; accessed on April 6, 2019
In memoriam: William R. Bennett, Jr. QSA, June 29, 2008(English).; accessed on April 6, 2019
Jeremy Pearce: William R. Bennett, 78, Pioneer in Gas Lasers, Dies. In: NYT . July 7, 2008 (English).; accessed on April 6, 2019
Emeritus homepage. Yale University, 2006, archived from the original on September 2, 2006 .; Retrieved January 1, 1970

Individual evidence

↑ For a report on Bennett and Javan's collaboration in the light of a later patent litigation, see Nick Taylor: Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War . Simon and Schuster, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7432-1321-9 , p. 125ff ( google.de ).

personal data
SURNAME	Bennett, William R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bennett, William Ralph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 30, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH	Jersey City
DATE OF DEATH	June 29, 2008
Place of death	Haverford

[1] For a report on Bennett and Javan's collaboration in the light of a later patent litigation, see Nick Taylor: Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War . Simon and Schuster, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7432-1321-9 , p. 125ff ( google.de ).