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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 95 results
William Sellers headshot

William Sellers

Improvement in Boring Mills

William Sellers built machines that helped facilitate the American Industrial Revolution. Born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, Sellers received a…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 17,641
Died:

Edmund Germer

Fluorescent Lamp

Edmund Germer's development of the fluorescent lamp and the high-pressure mercury-vapor lamp increased the efficiency of lighting devices, allowing…
Inducted in: 1996
Born:
U.S. Patent Nos.: 2,182,732, 2,202,199
Died:

Gerd Karl Binnig

Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Gerd Karl Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer based their scanning tunneling microscope (STM) on a principle of quantum mechanics which allows the surface of…
Inducted in: 1994
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,343,993

Edward Weston

Portable Voltmeter

Edward Weston advanced the nascent electrical industry by inventing portable electrical measuring instruments that were known worldwide for their…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 392,387
Died:
Gordon Moore headshot

Gordon Moore

Method for Fabricating Transistors

As a cofounder of both Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, Gordon Moore set the pace and standards for Silicon Valley's chip manufacturing methods.…
Inducted in: 2009
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,108,359
Died:

Robert J. Seiwald

Isothiocyanate Compounds for Antigen Identification

Robert Seiwald and Joseph Burckhalter worked together to patent fluorescein isothiocyanate and rhodamine isothiocyanate, better known as FITC and…
Inducted in: 1995
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,937,186
Military Service: U.S. Army

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:

Rene Alphonse Higonnet

Photo Composing Machine

Rene Alphonse Higonnet and Louis Moyroud introduced the first phototypesetting machine that used photocomposition. Photocomposition greatly reduced…
Inducted in: 1985
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,790,362
Died:

Herbert W. Boyer

Genetic Engineering

Herb Boyer was with the University of California, San Francisco when he began investigating DNA with Stan Cohen. Their experiments marked the…
Inducted in: 2001
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,237,224

Emile Gagnan

Diving Equipment

Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau together invented the modern demand regulator used in underwater diving. Their invention allowed for the equipment…
Inducted in: 2010
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,485,039
Died:
Martha Coston

Martha Coston

Signal Flares Used by Ships

Martha Coston invented a system of pyrotechnic signal flares that not only gave the U.S. Navy a great advantage in communication during the Civil War…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 115,935
Died:
Kerrie Holley

Kerrie Holley

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Kerrie Holley pioneered service-oriented architecture (SOA), a software architecture and programming model for large enterprises. Guiding the…
Inducted in: 2025
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 7,957,994

Howard Aiken

Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Mark I)

With the Mark I calculator, Howard Aiken showed that a computer could provide high-powered, speedy mathematical solutions to many problems. Aiken…
Inducted in: 2014
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,616,626
Died:
Military Service: U.S. Navy

Luis Walter Alvarez

Radio Distance and Direction Indicator

Luis Walter Alvarez invented a radio distance and direction indicator. During World War II, he designed a landing system for aircraft and a radar…
Inducted in: 1978
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,480,208
Died:

Frederick Banting

Isolated, Purified Insulin

Millions of diabetics owe their lives to Frederick Banting's idea and research. Working with fellow Canadians Charles Best and James Collip, Banting…
Inducted in: 2004
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,469,994
Died:
Katharine Burr Blodgett

Katharine Burr Blodgett

Langmuir-Blodgett Films

Physicist Katharine Burr Blodgett experimented with monolayers, or organic films only a single molecule thick, initiating a new scientific discipline…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,220,860
Died:

Seth Boyden

Process for Making Malleable Iron

Seth Boyden invented a process for making malleable cast iron, a tough, bendable, and machinable material that was not hard or brittle like earlier…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
Died:
Emmanuelle Charpentier

Emmanuelle Charpentier

CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing

Microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier and biochemist Jennifer Doudna co-invented the gene-editing system CRISPR-Cas9, a versatile technology for…
Inducted in: 2023
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 10,266,850
Edith Clarke

Edith Clarke

Graphical Calculator

Pioneering electrical engineer Edith Clarke invented a graphical calculator that greatly simplified the calculations necessary to determine the…
Inducted in: 2015
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,552,113
Died:

Stanley N. Cohen

Genetic Engineering

In 1973, Stan Cohen and Herb Boyer worked together to understand how genes work and ended up proving that DNA cloning was feasible. Their experiments…
Inducted in: 2001
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,237,224
Walt Disney headshot

Walt Disney

Multiplane Camera

Walt Disney invented the multiplane camera to produce state-of-the-art animation. First used in the 1937 short film The Old Mill, the camera added…
Inducted in: 2000
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,201,689
Died:

Benjamin Durfee

Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Mark I)

IBM engineer Benjamin Durfee, along with Clair Lake and Frank Hamilton, translated Harvard physicist Howard Aiken's concept for a large scale…
Inducted in: 2014
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,616,626
Died:

Philo Taylor Farnsworth

Television System

Philo Taylor Farnsworth's electronic inventions made possible today's TV industry, the TV shots from the moon, and satellite pictures. Born in Beaver…
Inducted in: 1984
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,773,980
Died:

Robert Fulton

Steamboat

Robert Fulton designed and operated the world's first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton's Clermont made its historic first run in August 1807…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
Died:

Leopold Godowsky, Jr.

Kodachrome® Film

Leopold Godowsky, Jr. and Leopold Mannes, affectionately known by colleagues and friends as "God and Man," were professional musicians who performed…
Inducted in: 2005
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,997,493
Died: