Showing 1 - 25 of 60 results
Mary Anderson
Windshield Wiper
While touring New York City in a trolley car on a snowy day in the early 1900s, Mary Anderson conceived her idea of a windshield wiper blade that…
Frances Arnold
Directed Evolution of Enzymes
Frances Arnold pioneered the directed evolution of enzymes. Her process for developing useful proteins, which involved mutating and recombining their…
Chieko Asakawa
Home Page Reader
Chieko Asakawa invented the Home Page Reader (HPR), the first practical voice browser to provide effective internet access for blind and visually…
Patricia Bath
Laserphaco Cataract Surgery
Dr. Patricia Bath invented laserphaco, a new device and technique to remove cataracts. It performed all steps of cataract removal: making the…
Ruth Benerito
Wrinkle-Free Cotton
Ruth Rogan Benerito was a visionary chemist and inventor who made important contributions in the textile, wood and paper industries. She is most…
Evelyn Berezin
Computer Systems for Business Use
Evelyn Berezin was an expert in logic design and data transmission. She designed one of the earliest computer reservations systems for airlines and…
Carolyn Bertozzi
Bioorthogonal Chemistry
Carolyn Bertozzi invented the field of bioorthogonal chemistry, which allows researchers to chemically modify molecules within living systems.…
Helen Blanchard
Zig-Zag Sewing Machine
Helen Blanchard invented the zig-zag sewing machine. By making significant improvements to existing machine designs, Blanchard’s work enabled the…
Sylvia Blankenship
1-MCP for Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Freshness
Horticulturalist Sylvia Blankenship and biochemist Edward Sisler identified 1-methylcyclopropene (1- MCP), a novel compound that significantly…
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…
Yvonne Brill
Electrothermal Hydrazine Resistojet
Yvonne Brill was a revolutionary innovator in rocket propulsion. Her most important contributions are advancements in rocket propulsion systems for…
Rachel Fuller Brown
Nystatin (Antifungal/Antibiotic)
Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen developed the world’s first successful fungus-fighting antibiotic: nystatin.Brown was born in Springfield…
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…
Mary-Dell Chilton
Transgenic Plant
Mary-Dell Chilton is one of the founders of modern plant biotechnology. She led the research team that produced the first transgenic, or genetically…
Edith Clarke
Graphical Calculator
Pioneering electrical engineer Edith Clarke invented a graphical calculator that greatly simplified the calculations necessary to determine the…
Josephine Garis Cochran
Dishwasher
Josephine Garis Cochran invented the first practical dishwasher and formed the Garis-Cochran Dish-Washing Co. to successfully manufacture and market…
Lynn Conway
Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI)
Lynn Conway and NIHF Inductee Carver Mead invented VLSI, or Very Large-Scale Integration, which transformed the global microelectronics industry.…
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…
Marian Croak
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Technology
Engineer Marian Croak has worked on advancing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies, converting voice data into digital signals that can…
Marion Donovan
Waterproof Diaper Cover
Marion Donovan invented an innovative waterproof diaper cover and earned several more patents for inventions designed to improve everyday life.Born…
Jennifer Doudna
CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing
Biochemist Jennifer Doudna and microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier co-invented the gene-editing system CRISPR-Cas9, a technology for editing DNA…
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…
Gertrude Belle Elion
Anti-Leukemia Drugs
Gertrude Belle Elion invented some of the most important lifesaving drugs of the 20th century, including the leukemia-fighting drug 6-mercaptopurine…
Edith Flanigen
Molecular Sieves
Edith Flanigen invented molecular sieves, or zeolites, manufacturing compounds that have made a critical impact in the petroleum and petrochemical…
Mary Florence Potts
Cold-Handle Sad Iron
Mary Florence Potts invented an improved sad iron, which was lighter and offered a cooler, more ergonomic handle. Beginning in the 1870s, it was…