Happy 50th Birthday to Lasers!

Looking Back on the Laser

A waveguide within a femtosecond laser amplifier system. Image courtesy of the University of Colorado and NSF.

Optical scientists are celebrating 2010 as the 50th anniversary of the laser, a device that has become ubiquitous in modern life. We'll talk about the history of the laser, and the tangled story surrounding its invention, from Einstein's 1917 concept of stimulated emission, to the creation of the MASER, to the battle over the patents and prizes associated with the laser's creation.

Guests

Thomas Baer
Executive Director
Stanford Photonics Research Center
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California

James Gordon
Physicist, Retired from Bell Labs
Rumson, New Jersey

Nick Taylor
Author, "Laser: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War" (Simon & Schuster, 2000)
New York, New York