William W. Simmons (born 1932) is an American physicist at TRW and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), notable for his development of electro-optical devices.
[1] After graduation he started at Space Technology Labs in the research and development of lasers and other electro-optic devices.
In 1972 he moved on to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where he was project engineer in their new Laser Program.
From 1985 till his retirement in 1992 he returned to TRW where he directed the research on "Solid State Lasers and Nonlinear Optics, Superconductive Electronics, and Semiconductor Diode Laser Devices and Arrays research groups.
"[1] Simmons was awarded the Distinguished Teaching in Engineering Award in 1972 from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was awarded distinguished alumni in 2009 for his "outstanding original research contributions to the development of electro-optical devices, including pulsed ion lasers, very large laser systems, and semiconductor laser arrays, and for his leadership in furthering the national goal of fusion energy generation.