Gary Boyd is a physicist who has worked primarily in nonlinear optics and for 3M at its main campus in St. Paul, Minnesota. This interview was done as part of the American Institute of Physics History of Physicists in Industry project, and is a follow-up interview to one conducted in December 2003 by Tom Lassman. Boyd discusses his family and education, including graduate work in nonlinear optics under Yuen-Ron Shen at the University of California at Berkeley, but also summer work in experimental work in atmospheric physics. He discusses his decision to pursue a career in industry, and his inital hiring by the 3M Corporate Research Laboratory in the 1980s. He discusses different research project, the nature of industrial research and development, the professional transition to management, and some history of research and development at 3M.
