William R. Bennett (born January 30, 1930) is an American physicist. He was co-inventor of the first gas laser (the helium-neon laser), discovered the argon ion laser, was first to observe spectral hole burning effects in gas lasers, and created a theory of hole burning effects on laser oscillation. He was co-discoverer of lasers using electron impact excitation in each of the noble gases, dissociative excitation transfer in the neon-oxygen laser (the first chemical laser), and collision excitation in several metal vapor lasers. Bennett is an emeritus professor at Yale University. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has written eight books, twelve patents and over 120 research papers. He received the 1965 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award.
