1927-

American physicist whose design improvements of Charles Townes's solid-state maser greatly increased its utility. He constructed and patented the first working laser in 1960 while at Hughes Research Laboratories. Maiman left Hughes and formed Korad Corporation in 1961 to develop and manufacture commercial lasers. Korad was acquired by Union Carbide in 1968, after which Maiman established Maiman Associates. He was also co-founder of Laser Video Corporation (1972), which developed large-screen laser video displays.