George Hart

Who is George Hart?

George A. Hart is a physicist best known in regard to discoveries leading to the development of rare gas halide excimer lasers.

Five years after the first excimer laser was invented in 1970 by Nikolai Basov, and two years after Northrop Corporation Research and Technology Center's team leader, Dr. Bhaumik announced the successful demonstration of the world's first efficient excimer laser at the Denver, Colorado meeting of the Optical Society of America in May 1973, Hart along with Naval Research Laboratory colleague, Stuart Searles, invented an excimer laser improvement; subsequently, excimer lasers found extensive use as the type of laser that made possible the immensely popular Lasik corrective eye surgery, and are utilized today in semiconductor manufacturing. The first patent for LASIK was granted by the U.S. Patent Office to Dr. Gholam A. Peyman on June 20, 1989.

Hart specialized in the application of supercomputers to the mathematical modeling of systems exhibiting extremely complex behavior. As a consultant to the Pentagon, he continues to work on the next generation of Strategic Defense Initiative technology.