Semiconductor Laser Pioneer Marshall Nathan Passes Away
Marshall Nathan, an inventor of the semiconductor laser in 1962, has passed away. The laser is now widely used and generates over $8 billion annually in revenue.
The realization of the semiconductor laser was a race between several industrial and academic research laboratories. Marshall and his colleagues at IBM Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, made the first demonstration of such a laser in November 1962.
Within days, another group led by Robert N. Hall at General Electric Company in Schenectady, NY, also achieved the laser. The two groups published their results on the same day, December 1, 1962.
Marshall Nathan went on to have a distinguished career, joining the University of Minnesota in 1987 as the Centennial Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.