Theodore H. Maiman
E828999
Theodore H. Maiman was an American physicist best known for building the first working laser in 1960, a breakthrough that revolutionized science and technology.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Theodore H. Maiman canonical | 1 |
| Theodore Harold Maiman | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9901374 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theodore H. Maiman Context triple: [Rumford Prize, notableRecipient, Theodore H. Maiman]
-
A.
Charles Hard Townes
Charles Hard Townes was an American physicist and Nobel laureate best known for his pioneering work in quantum electronics that led to the development of the maser and laser.
-
B.
George Heilmeier
George Heilmeier was an American engineer and inventor best known for pioneering liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and later leading major research organizations in industry and government.
-
C.
Robert F. Christy
Robert F. Christy was a Canadian-American theoretical physicist best known for his key role in the Manhattan Project, including designing the "Christy pit" core used in the Trinity test and the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
-
D.
Melvin Wydler
Melvin Wydler was a U.S. Congressman whose legislative work on technology and innovation policy led to a federal law being named in his honor.
-
E.
Norman Ramsey
Norman Ramsey was an American physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for developing the separated oscillatory field method, which enabled highly precise atomic clocks and advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Theodore H. Maiman Target entity description: Theodore H. Maiman was an American physicist best known for building the first working laser in 1960, a breakthrough that revolutionized science and technology.
-
A.
Charles Hard Townes
Charles Hard Townes was an American physicist and Nobel laureate best known for his pioneering work in quantum electronics that led to the development of the maser and laser.
-
B.
George Heilmeier
George Heilmeier was an American engineer and inventor best known for pioneering liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and later leading major research organizations in industry and government.
-
C.
Robert F. Christy
Robert F. Christy was a Canadian-American theoretical physicist best known for his key role in the Manhattan Project, including designing the "Christy pit" core used in the Trinity test and the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
-
D.
Melvin Wydler
Melvin Wydler was a U.S. Congressman whose legislative work on technology and innovation policy led to a federal law being named in his honor.
-
E.
Norman Ramsey
Norman Ramsey was an American physicist and Nobel laureate renowned for developing the separated oscillatory field method, which enabled highly precise atomic clocks and advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
inventor
ⓘ
physicist ⓘ |
| academicDegree | PhD in physics ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Albert Einstein Award
ⓘ
IEEE Medal of Honor ⓘ Japan Prize ⓘ Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize ⓘ Wolf Prize in Physics ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1927-07-11 ⓘ |
| birthPlace | Los Angeles, California, United States ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | systemic mastocytosis ⓘ |
| citizenship |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| deathDate | 2007-05-05 ⓘ |
| deathPlace | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada ⓘ |
| doctoralAdvisor |
Willis Lamb
ⓘ
linked to:
Willis Eugene Lamb
|
| education |
Stanford University
ⓘ
University of Colorado Boulder ⓘ |
| employer | Hughes Research Laboratories ⓘ |
| familyName | Maiman ⓘ |
| field |
laser physics
ⓘ
physics ⓘ |
| fullName |
Theodore Harold Maiman
ⓘ
linked to:
Theodore H. Maiman
|
| gender | male ⓘ |
| givenName | Theodore ⓘ |
| influenced |
applications of lasers in communications
ⓘ
applications of lasers in industry ⓘ applications of lasers in medicine ⓘ development of laser technology ⓘ |
| invention | first operational ruby laser ⓘ |
| knownFor |
building the first working laser
ⓘ
ruby laser ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| memberOf | National Academy of Engineering ⓘ |
| nationality | American ⓘ |
| notableAchievement | demonstration of the first laser on 1960-05-16 ⓘ |
| notableEvent | first public announcement of laser at Hughes Research Laboratories in 1960 ⓘ |
| notableWork | Stimulated Optical Radiation in Ruby ⓘ |
| occupation |
engineer
ⓘ
inventor ⓘ physicist ⓘ |
| patent | laser device based on ruby crystal ⓘ |
| residence | California, United States ⓘ |
| spouse | Shirley Maiman ⓘ |
| workInstitution | Hughes Research Laboratories ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Theodore H. Maiman Description of subject: Theodore H. Maiman was an American physicist best known for building the first working laser in 1960, a breakthrough that revolutionized science and technology.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Theodore H. Maiman