James P. Gordon

James P. Gordon
James P. Gordon (1928–2013)
Born	(1928-03-20)March 20, 1928 New York City, New York
Died	June 21, 2013(2013-06-21) (aged 85) Manhattan, New York, New York
Residence	United States
Nationality	United States
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Bell Labs
Alma mater	Columbia University Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisor	Charles Hard Townes

James Power Gordon (March 20, 1928 – June 21, 2013) was an American physicist known for his work in the fields of optics and quantum electronics. His contributions include the design, analysis and construction of the first maser in 1954 as a doctoral student at Columbia University under the supervision of C. H. Townes, development of the quantal equivalent of Shannon’s information capacity formula in 1962, development of the theory for the diffusion of atoms in an optical trap (together with A. Ashkin) in 1980, and the discovery of what is now known as the Gordon-Haus effect in soliton transmission, together with H. A. Haus in 1986. James P. Gordon was a member of the National Academy of Engineering (since 1985) and the National Academy of Science (since 1988).

J. P. Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 20, 1928, and was raised in Forest Hills, Queens and Scarsdale, New York. His father, Robert S. Gordon was a lawyer and worked as VP and General Counsel for National Dairy, now Kraftco. Gordon attended Scarsdale High School and Phillips Exeter Academy (Class of 1945). In 1949 he received a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and joined the physics department of Columbia University as a graduate student. He received his Masters and PhD degrees in physics in 1951 and 1955, respectively. In the framework of his doctoral research he designed, built and demonstrated the successful operation of the first maser together with H. Zeiger and with his doctoral advisor Prof. Charles H. Townes. The invention of the maser won the Nobel Prize in Physics, which C.H. Townes shared in 1964 with the Russian scientists N. Bassov and A. Prokhorov. Starting in 1955 and until his retirement in 1996, James P. Gordon worked as a scientist at AT&T Bell-Laboratories, where in the period between 1958 and 1980 he headed the Quantum Electronics Research Department, located initially in Murray Hill and later in Holmdel Township, both in the state of New Jersey. In 1962-1963 he spent one year as a visiting Professor at the University of California, San Diego.