PHYSICIST

Gordon Gould

1920 - 2005

Photo of Gordon Gould

Icon of person Gordon Gould

Richard Gordon Gould (July 17, 1920 – September 16, 2005) was an American physicist who is sometimes credited with the invention of the laser and the optical amplifier. (Credit for the invention of the laser is disputed, since Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow were the first to publish the theory and Theodore Maiman was the first to build a working laser). Gould is best known for his thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gordon Gould has received more than 151,455 page views. His biography is available in 29 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 26 in 2019). Gordon Gould is the 493rd most popular physicist (up from 582nd in 2019), the 3,784th most popular biography from United States (up from 5,738th in 2019) and the 98th most popular American Physicist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 150k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 59.42

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 29

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 7.10

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.81

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Gordon Gould ranks 493 out of 851. Before him are Arthur Jeffrey Dempster, John Leslie, Martin Knudsen, Ivan Puluj, Maurice Karnaugh, and Johann Heinrich Schulze. After him are Alexei Starobinsky, William Robert Grove, Friedrich Kohlrausch, Raoul Pictet, Walter Heitler, and Ira Sprague Bowen.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1920, Gordon Gould ranks 191. Before him are Osvaldo Cavandoli, Lewis Gilbert, Frances Ames, Richard E. Bellman, Yves Robert, and Cornelius Ryan. After him are Koichi Tohei, Leo McKern, Stan Ockers, Giuseppe Colombo, Milton George Henschel, and John Chadwick. Among people deceased in 2005, Gordon Gould ranks 127. Before him are Andre Norton, Kevin Hagen, Zoran Mušič, Eddie Albert, Vincent Gigante, and Sergio Endrigo. After him are Raoul Bott, Jimmy Smith, Suzanne Flon, Alain Bombard, Zainab al Ghazali, and Jacques Villeret.

Others Born in 1920

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Others Deceased in 2005

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Gordon Gould ranks 3,784 out of 20,380. Before him are Edna Parker (1893), Gladys Knight (1944), Dean Jones (1931), Fred Lawrence Whipple (1906), Milton Glaser (1929), and Nikki Haley (1972). After him are Kaʻahumanu (1768), Isiah Thomas (1961), Harriet Lane (1830), Wanda Jackson (1937), Ty Cobb (1886), and John Perkins (1945).

Others born in United States

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Among PHYSICISTS In United States

Among physicists born in United States, Gordon Gould ranks 98. Before him are Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898), Richard C. Tolman (1881), Lyman Spitzer (1914), Alan Guth (1947), Clarence Zener (1905), and Maurice Karnaugh (1924). After him are Ira Sprague Bowen (1898), Edwin H. Land (1909), Gene Amdahl (1922), Theodore Hall (1925), Lester Germer (1896), and Alan Sokal (1955).

American born Physicists

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