| William T. Silfvast | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Work Institutions: | Oxford University AT&T Bell Labs Stanford University University of Central Florida |
| Alma Mater: | University of Utah |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Grant R. Fowles |
| Thesis Title: | High Gain Laser Action in the Neutral Spectrum of Lead |
| Thesis Year: | 1965 |
William Thomas Silfvast is an American physicist well known for his contributions to gas discharge lasers,[1] [2] soft x-ray lasers,[3] and as the author of the influential textbook Laser Fundamentals.[4] and also several thriller novels (see billsilfvast.com). Silfvast received his PhD in physics from the University of Utah and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford. He then spent much of his career at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey, with a Guggenheim Fellowship at Stanford in 1982–83. Later he became a professor and chairman of the Physics Department at the University of Central Florida's Center for Research in Electro-Optics and Lasers (CREOL). Silfvast remains a Professor Emeritus at UCF, and is now retired and living in Oregon. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, and the IEEE.[5] In 2010 Silfvast was selected as one of 27 'Laser Luminaries' (laser pioneers) during the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the discovery of the laser.