William Frederick Meggers (13.07.1888 — 19.02. 1967) was an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1954). He was born in Clintonville (Wisconsin). He graduated from the college in Ripon, and in 1917 he received the degree of doctor at Johns Hopkins University (1910). In 1919 — 58 he was head of a department at the National Bureau of Standards.
His research was mainly in the field of spectroscopy. He described the spectra of more than half of the chemical elements at many stages of ionisation. He studied the electron structures of many atoms and ions, analysed the spectra of atoms of thulium, ytterbium and hafnium, and studied the emission spectra of more than forty-five chemical elements. He used the analysis of spectral data to determine the energy levels of atoms, atomic structure and the properties of atomic nuclei. He measured the wavelengths of spectral lines. He worked on obtaining a standard of the wavelength of light. He was one of the pioneers of infrared photography and spectroscopy.