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William Ralph Bennett, Jr.
(with one of the first helium-neon lasers)
William Ralph Bennett, Jr.'s graduate work in physics was on spectroscopy and collisions of the second kind in the noble gases. He was co-inventor of the first gas laser (the helium-neon laser), discovered the argon ion laser, was first to observe spectral hole burning effects in gas lasers, and created a theory of hole burning effects on laser oscillation. He was co-discoverer of lasers using electron impact excitation in each of the noble gases, dissociative excitation transfer in the neon-oxygen laser (the first chemical laser), and collision excitation in several metal vapor lasers. He was one of the first to incorporate the use of computers to teach physics and, with his daughter Dr. Jean Bennett Maguire, devised a method of real-time spectral phonocardiography for the detection and classification of heart murmurs. He set a stringent limit on the existence of “The Fifth Force” and showed that it was improbable that magnetic fields from power lines could cause cancer. Research he did on the physics of musical instruments became the basis of a popular course he gave at Yale. He has written eight books, twelve patents and over 120 research papers. His principal avocation is playing chamber music. He studied the clarinet with Simeon Bellison and has been clarinet soloist with several amateur symphony orchestras.
Personal:
Born January 30, 1930 and married Frances Ellen Commins, December 11, 1952 They have three children: Jean, William Robert, and Nancy.
Education:
Summit Central High School, Summit, N.J.
BA in physics, Princeton University
PhD in physics, Columbia University (under Profs. C. S. Wu and Vernon Hughes)
Employment:
1948-51 Technical staff of Marquis Recordings and University Recordings
1951-57 Research Assistant, Columbia Radiation Laboratory
1957-59 Instructor in Physics, Yale University
1959-62 Member of Technical Staff, Bell Telephone Laboratories
1962-64 Associate Professor of Physics and Applied Science, Yale University
1964-72 Professor of Physics and Applied Science, Yale University
1972-98 C.B.Sawyer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Physics, Yale University; Emeritus, from 1998 on.
1981-87 Master of Silliman College, Yale University
Honors and Awards:
Member of Sigma Xi; Fellow of the American Physical Society; the Optical Society of America, and the IEEE; listed in Who’s Who and A Century of Honor (IEEE Press).
1947 - Stanley Silverman Prize in Chemistry
1963 - Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow
1964 - Honorary MA, Yale University
1965 - Morris N. Liebmann Award of the IEEE (for the invention of the gas laser)
1967 - J. S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellow
1972 - C.B.Sawyer Chair, Yale University
1974, 1975, 1976 - Annual "Ten Best Teachers" award, Yale Student Course Critique
1974 - Fellow, IEEE ("for contributions to the realization and understanding of gas lasers")
1975 - Honorary D.Sc., University of New Haven
1977 - Western Electric Fund Award of the ASME ("for excellence in instruction of engineering students")
1977 - Outstanding Patent Award of the Research and Development Council of New Jersey for U.S.Patent No. 3614653 (for the first gas laser)
1987 - John F. Enders Research Fellow
1994 - Eli Whitney Award of Connecticut Patent Law Association (for the invention of spectral phonocardiograph.)
1997 - Life Fellow, IEEE
2000 - DeVane Medal for Distinguished Scholarship and Teaching at Yale University, Phi Beta Kappa
Consulting:
Teacher’s College, Columbia University; Naval Research Advisory Committee; Institute for Dense Analyses; Technical Research Group; CBS Laboratories; AVCO Corp.; Schlumberger; Madrigal Audio Laboratories; Kahn Communications; Reeves Scientific Co.; Oak Ridge Association of Universities; MCG International; Premiere Heart; University of Cincinatti.
Guest Lectureships:
Univ. California at La Jolla, Phillips Laboratory; UCLA, Summer Program; Soviet Academy of Sciences; Brandeis Summer Institute on Theoretical Physics;
McMasters University; York University, Yale-New Haven Teachers' Institute.
Committee and Board Memberships:
Panel on Atomic Physics and Astrophysics advisory to NBS, Visiting Scientist Program, American Institute of Physics, La Jolla Conference on Chemical Lasers, Editorial Board, Journal of Applied Phys. and Applied Physics Letters, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Division of Electron and Atomic Physics, AIP, Board of Directors of the Laser Sciences Corp., Correspondent to Comments on Atomic and Molecular Physics, NRAC Committee on Laboratory Research, Stevens Institute, Advisory Panel on Computing, CIRRPC-ORAU Panel on Health Effects of Low Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields.
Books:
1964 - Gas Lasers (Moscow, Izdattel'stvo "MIR"), translated into Russian by S.G.Rautian and A.S.Khaikin
1965 - Chemical Lasers, (Editor with K. Schuler) (Applied Optics Supplement No. 2, Optical Soc. of Amer., Washington, DC)
1976 - Introduction to Computer Applications for Non-Science Students, (Prentice-Hall, Englewood-Cliffs, N.J.)
1976 - Scientific and Engineering Problem Solving with the Computer, (Prentice-Hall, Englewood-Cliffs, N.J.)
1977 - The Physics of Gas Lasers, (Gordon and Breach, London)
1979 - Atomic Gas Laser Transition Data (Plenum Publishing Company, New York)
1994 - Health and Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (Yale University Press, New Haven)
2006 - The Science of Musical Sound (in preparation.)
Patents:
"[Pulsed Helium-Neon] Gas Optical Maser" (with A. Javan), U. S. Patent No. 3149290 (granted Sept. 15, 1964)
"[Dissociative Transfer] Gas Optical Maser" (with A. Javan), U. S. Patent No. 3159707 (granted Dec. 1, 1964)
"Frequency Stabilized Optical Maser [based on Spectral Hole-burning]", U. S. Patent No. 3172057 (granted Feb. 16, 1965)
"[High Power] Gaseous Optical Maser", U. S. Patent No. 3172057 (granted March 2, 1965)
"Optical Maser Employing Multiple Gases [Krypton, Xenon and Radon with Helium]" (with W. L. Faust, R. A. McFarlane and C.K.N.Patel, U. S. Patent No. 3278858 (granted Oct. 11, 1966)
"Laser Utilizing Collision Depopulation [of the Lower Level]" (with G. Gould), U. S. Patent No. 3562662 (Granted Feb. 9, 1971)
"Low-Level Laser with Cyclic Excitation [Copper, Manganese, etc., metal vapor lasers]" (with Gordon Gould and W. T. Walter), U. S. Patent No. 3576500 (granted April 27, 1971)
"[Cw Helium-Neon] Optical Maser" (with D. R. Herriott and A. Javan), U. S. Patent No.3614653 (granted Oct. 19, 1971)
"Method and Device for Compensating for Partial Hearing Loss", U. S. Patent No. 4868880 (granted Sept. 19, 1989)
"Dynamic Spectral Phonocardiograph" (with Dr. J.B.Maguire), U. S. Patent No. 4967760 (granted Nov. 6, 1990).
"Dynamic Spectral Phonocardiograph [using Computer Diagnostics]" (with Dr.J.B.Maguire), U.S.Patent No. 5012815 (granted May 7, 1991).
"Laser with Reduced Intensity Fluctuations" ("Laser Stabilitron" with V. P. Chebotayev), U. S. Patent No.5251229 (Oct. 5, 1993).
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