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Learn About Famous Inventors Who Have Changed the World

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Browse List of Inductees
Showing 26 - 50 of 173 results
Rory Cooper

Rory Cooper

Wheelchair Technology

Biomedical engineer Rory Cooper developed innovations in wheelchair technology that have improved manual and electric wheelchairs, and advanced the…
Inducted in: 2023
Born:
U.S. Patent Nos.: 6,276,705, 8,264,458
Military Service: U.S. Army
Mildred Dresselhaus

Mildred Dresselhaus

Superlattice Structures for Thermoelectric Devices

Renowned physicist Mildred Dresselhaus led pioneering work on carbon and its thermal and electrical properties. Known as the "Queen of Carbon Science…
Inducted in: 2014
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 7,465,871
Died:
Beatrice Hicks

Beatrice Hicks

Device for Sensing Gas Density

Beatrice Hicks invented a gas density sensor that enabled the development of many advanced technologies and played a key role in making space travel…
Inducted in: 2017
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,046,369
Died:

Oliver Joseph Lodge

Electric Telegraphy

Physicist Oliver Lodge made several important technological contributions, most notably his advancement of wireless telegraphy. Lodge's invention of…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 609,154
Died:

Walther H. Nernst

Metallic Filament Incandescent Lamp

Walther Nernst developed a new form of electric lighting, the Nernst lamp, that was a significant improvement over the carbon-filament lamp. In…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 623,811
Died:
Les Paul

Les Paul

Solid-Body Electric Guitar

Les Paul introduced the world to the solid-body electric guitar, a pioneering instrument that transformed popular music.Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin,…
Inducted in: 2005
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,018,680
Died:
Military Service: U.S. Army

Peter Cooper Hewitt

Mercury-Vapor Lamp

Peter Cooper Hewitt patented the mercury vapor lamp which was widely used for street and outdoor lighting. A graduate of Columbia University, he was…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,030,178
Died:

Joshua Lionel Cowen

Toy Train

Joshua Lionel Cowen invented model railroads in the early 20th century. Born in New York City, Cowen attended the Cooper Union and Columbia College…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,113,312
Died:

George Westinghouse, Jr.

Air Brake System

George Westinghouse, Jr. invented a system of air brakes that made travel by train safe and built one of the greatest electric manufacturing…
Inducted in: 1989
Born:
U.S. Patent Nos.: RE 5504
Died:
Military Service: U.S. Army, U.S. Navy

Mark Dean

Peripherals

Mark Dean and his co-inventor Dennis Moeller created a microcomputer system with bus control means for peripheral processing devices. Their invention…
Inducted in: 1997
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,528,626

Charles Franklin Kettering

Electrical Ignition System

Charles Franklin Kettering invented the first electrical ignition system and the self-starter for automobile engines and the first practical engine-…
Inducted in: 1980
Born:
U.S. Patent Nos.: 1,150,523, 1,171,055
Died:

James Murray Spangler

Portable Electric Vacuum Cleaner

James Spangler invented the first commercially successful portable electric vacuum cleaner, an invention that revolutionized household carpet…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 889,823
Died:

William D. Coolidge

X-Ray

William D. Coolidge's name is inseparably linked with the X-ray tube -- popularly called the "Coolidge tube." This invention completely…
Inducted in: 1975
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,203,495
Died:

Calvin Fuller

Silicon Solar Cell

Chemist Calvin Fuller co-invented the silicon solar cell with physicists Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson. Building on Albert Einstein's theories…
Inducted in: 2008
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,780,765
Died:

Georges Claude

Neon Tubing

French industrial chemist Georges Claude invented neon tubing. Born in Paris, France, he studied at Ecole de Physique et Chinie before graduating in…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,189,664
Died:
Warren S. Johnson

Warren S. Johnson

Temperature Control

Warren Johnson was born in 1847 in Leicester, Vermont, to homesteading farmers. Two years later, the family moved to Wisconsin, where the largely…
Inducted in: 2018
Born:
U.S. Patent Nos.: 542,733, 281,884
Died:

Daryl Chapin

Silicon Solar Cell

Daryl Chapin, with Bell Labs colleagues Calvin Fuller and Gerald Pearson, invented the first practical device for converting sunlight into useful…
Inducted in: 2008
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,780,765
Died:
Amar Bose

Amar Bose

Feedback Control

Amar Bose was a pioneer in modern acoustics. Both an electrical engineer and a sound engineer, he advanced the electronics industry with…
Inducted in: 2008
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,494,074
Died:
Steven Sasson

Steven Sasson

Digital Camera

Steve Sasson invented the digital camera, changing the future of photography and transforming an industry.Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Sasson…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,131,919
Esther Sans Takeuchi

Esther Sans Takeuchi

Lithium/Silver Vanadium Oxide (Li/SVO) Battery Technology in Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs)

Energy storage expert Esther Sans Takeuchi led efforts to invent and refine the lithium/silver vanadium oxide (Li/SVO) battery technology used to…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent Nos.: 5,389,472, 6,221,534
Howard S. Jones Jr.

Howard S. Jones Jr.

Conformal Antennas

Howard Jones invented conformal antennas – lightweight antennas found in rockets, missiles and spacecraft. His innovations in antenna technology…
Inducted in: 2018
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,010,470
Died:
Military Service: U.S. Army
Charles Proteus Steinmetz headshot

Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Alternating Current

Without Charles Steinmetz's theories of alternating current, the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States in the early 20th…
Inducted in: 1977
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 533,244
Died:

Willem Einthoven

Electrocardiograph

Willem Einthoven designed the first instrument that accurately recorded the electrical activity of the heart and produced the first reliable…
Inducted in: 2008
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,592,628
Died:

Gerald L. Pearson

Silicon Solar Cell

Gerald Pearson's fundamental research in semiconductor materials led to the invention, with Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller, of the silicon solar cell…
Inducted in: 2008
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,780,765
Died:
Robert H. Dennard

Robert H. Dennard

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)

Robert Heath Dennard invented one-transistor Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which significantly increased computer memory density while…
Inducted in: 1997
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,387,286
Died: