Since the late 1950s, one of the most contested issues in the science community has been that of whom to credit with the invention of the light amplifier, or laser. Designs for the laser were submitted by several prominent physicists, and many others contributed to the pool of knowledge from which those designs emerged. One thing, however, is certain: the very first working laser built in the United States was constructed by Theodore Maiman in 1960.

The son of an electrical engineer, Maiman worked his way through college by repairing appliances and other electrical devices. He graduated from the University of Colorado in 1949 and pursued his Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University, graduating in 1955. It was during his stay at Stanford that Maiman learned of Charles Townes's work on masers (an acronym for Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation).

Shortly after the maser was constructed in...