Showing 151 - 175 of 250 results
Tom Leighton
Content Delivery Network
In the late 1990s, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mathematics Professor Tom Leighton and his graduate student Danny Lewin recognized…
Ronald M. Lewis
Ceramic Substrate in Catalytic Converters
Ronald Lewis co-invented the ceramic substrate found in catalytic converters, the device used on cars to reduce pollutants into harmless byproducts.…
Frances Ligler
Portable Optical Biosensors
Frances Ligler invented portable optical biosensors, benefiting fields from health care to food production to military operations.
Ligler’s lifelong…
Lisa Lindahl
Sports Bra
Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller and Polly Smith invented the first sports bra: the Jogbra®. This groundbreaking invention removed a barrier to…
Barbara Liskov
Programming Languages and System Design
Barbara Liskov is a pioneer in the design of computer programming languages, helping to make computer programs more reliable, secure, and easy to use…
John Joseph Lynott
Magnetic Disk Drive
John Lynott and William Goddard, together with Louis Stevens and a team of engineers, invented a unique magnetic disk storage device at the IBM Lab…
Ken Manchester
Ion Implantation
Ken Manchester was a pioneer in the development of ion implantation, a process in which silicon is bombarded with ionized atoms to change the…
John L. Mason
Mason Jar
John Mason invented and patented the first glass jar with a screw-on cap in 1858.
From early human history, farmers searched for a method to keep…
Hiram S. Maxim
Maxim Gun; Smokeless Gunpowder
Hiram Maxim produced an array of inventions, but is most known for the Maxim gun, a weapon that completely changed the technique of modern warfare.…
Alexander Miles
Improved Method for Opening and Closing Elevators
Alexander Miles developed innovations for elevator cabin and shaft doors, making it possible for the doors to automatically open and close. His work…
Bryan B. Molloy
Prozac
Bryan Molloy and Klaus Schmiegel co-invented a class of aryloxyphenylpropylamines, which includes the active ingredient in Prozac®, the most widely…
Andrew J. Moyer
Method for Production of Penicillin
Andrew J. Moyer's discoveries provided the foundation for the industrial production of penicillin. Born in Star City, Indiana, Moyer received his A.B…
Kary B. Mullis
Polymerase Chain Reaction
The polymerase chain reaction, which was devised by Kary Mullis, has revolutionized DNA technology. It has had a major impact on molecular biology,…
John Nicholson
Ibuprofen
Chemist John Nicholson and pharmacologist Stewart Adams developed ibuprofen during the 1950s and 1960s at Boots Pure Drug Co. in England. Today,…
Alfred Nobel
Dynamite
Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was also a great industrialist. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Nobel moved with his family as a youngster to St.…
John K. Northrop
Flying Wing Plane; All-Metal High-Wing Monocoque Airplane (Vega)
Jack Northrop was a true artist of aircraft design. His creativity led him to design the Lockheed Vega, a design with a monocoque, or single-shell,…
Miguel Angel Ondetti
Captopril
Miguel Ondetti and David Cushman developed captopril, the first of a new class of drugs known as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.…
C. Kumar N. Patel
Carbon Dioxide Laser
Kumar Patel invented the carbon dioxide laser in the early 1960s while at Bell Labs. Although many types of lasers exist, the CO2 laser is now a…
Lester A. Pelton
Water Wheel
One of the fathers of hydroelectric power, Lester Pelton invented the first water wheel to take advantage of the kinetic energy of water rather than…
Dennis Ritchie
UNIX Operating System
Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson’s creation of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language were pivotal developments in the progress of…
John Raphael Rogers
Matrix for Linotype Machine
John Rogers invented an improved version of automatic typesetting, significantly advancing typography.
His work began by focusing on the problem of…
Benjamin A. Rubin
Pronged Vaccinating Needle
Microbiologist Benjamin A. Rubin ground the eyelet of a sewing machine needle into a fork shape to create a vaccine delivery system that helped wipe…
Klaus K. Schmiegel
Prozac
Klaus Schmiegel and Bryan Molloy co-invented a class of aryloxyphenylpropylamines which includes the compound fluoxetine hydrochloride. Fluoxetine…
John C. Sheehan
Synthesis of Penicillin
Sir Alexander Fleming's 1928 discovery of penicillin in bread mold was a tremendous breakthrough for medical science. Unfortunately, Fleming's…
Patsy O. Sherman
Scotchgard™ Textile Protector
Chemist Patsy Sherman and colleague Sam Smith were working at 3M Company when they created Scotchgard™. Scotchgard went on to become one of the most…