William L Kruer

William L. Kruer (b. 20 April 1942, Louisville, Kentucky) is an American physicist, specializing in plasma physics.

Kruer studied at the University of Louisville (Master's degree, 1965) and received his PhD in 1969 from Princeton University. Afterwards he was a research associate scientist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and from 1970 a full member of the research staff. Starting in 1972 he was a group leader for theoretical plasma physics and simulation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and from 1993 a chief scientist in plasma physics there. He wrote an important book on laser plasma interactions.

In 1990, he received the James Clerk Maxwell Prize in Plasma Physics.