Did You Know?
Engineers and scientists have made many contributions to the world in the past 50 years. Their research and scientific efforts have led to hundreds of inventions that make our every day lives a lot easier. The following are just a few of many modern pioneers who started with an idea and turned it into a reality.
Colleen Wilson-Hodge, Ph.D.
Colleen Wilson-Hodge, Ph.D., always wanted to be an astronomer. As a physicist for NASA, pursuing her dreams lead to a discovery of exotic stars called X-ray pulsars. A pulsar is a rotating neutron star formed when a large, ordinary star explodes as a supernova and then collapses. Wilson-Hodge discovered a particular type of pulsar called an X-ray pulsar. She has worked for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. for 10 years. She received her doctorate in physics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Wilson-Hodge wants to one day create a new instrument that will be able to detect even more of the universe.
Eugenia Kalnay
Scientist Eugenia Kalnay did not slow down after becoming the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT’s) Department of Technology. Kalnay developed the global numerical weather prediction model that is presently used at NASA. She has also developed and published new methods to study atmospheric dynamics and predictability, and is the author of more than 40 papers in various science journals. Today, Kalnay is Distinguished University Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is the recipient of NASA’s Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, and a board member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Frederick McKinley Jones
Frederick McKinley Jones completely changed the food transport industry when he invented the thermostat and temperature control system. Jones had a natural ability to deal with machinery, which was supported by his independent reading and study books on auto mechanics. He enlisted in World War I, served in France as an electrician, and earned the rank of sergeant. Jones, along with business partner Joseph A. Numero, founded U.S. Thermo Control Company, which would eventually progress to a $3 million a year business by 1949. Jones was awarded more than 60 patents. Forty of the patents were for refrigeration equipment alone.
Franklin Chang-Diaz
As a Costa Rican, Franklin Chang-Diaz’s hoped of one day traveling into space becoming the first Hispanic to do so. But in 1986, Chang-Diaz accomplished both goals. Since watching the Soviet Union launch Sputnik I at the tender age of seven, his imagination and enthusiasm for space were ignited. Chang-Diaz would go on to earn Ph.D. in applied plasma physics from MIT. He is the founder of the Astronaut Science Support Group, where he served as its first chief. While on the Space Shuttle Columbia, Chang-Diaz addressed Latin Americans and Hispanic Americans in Spanish from the shuttle. He would orbit again in 1989 and in 1992. Dr. Chang-Diaz retired from NASA in 2005.
Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.
Since becoming the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. from MIT, Shirley Ann Jackson has had very little time to sit back and reflect on this and other major accomplishments. Jackson, a theoretical physicist, has spent a good part of her career researching and teaching about particle physics – the branch of physics which uses theories and mathematics to predict the existence of subatomic particles and the forces that bind them together. She also spent time conducting research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and was an appointed chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1995. In the early 1990s Governor James Florio awarded her the Thomas Alva Edison Science Award for her contributions to physics and for the promotion of science. Her aim is to actively promote women on science. She is currently serving as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. George F. Grant
The next time you watch Tiger Woods or Isao Aoki tee it up on the golf course, keep in mind that an African-American doctor played a key role in their sport. Dr. George F. Grant, a Harvard University graduate and well-known dentist, patented the wooden golf tee Dec. 12, 1899. Before his invention, golfers were teeing-off on mounds of dirt, often with less than ideal results. He was also recognized internationally for his invention of the oblate palate, a prosthetic device he designed for treatment of the cleft palate. Dr. Grant graduated from Harvard Dental School in 1870, where he later taught.
Chien-Shiung Wu
A world-renowned physicist, Chien-Shiung Wu studied the laws of nature. Wu’s work disproved the “law of parity,” which stated that in reactions, like nuclear particles, always act systematically. She was born in China May 31, 1912. After graduating from Nanking Central University in 1936, she earned her Ph.D. in physicist from the University of California-Berkeley. She was the first woman to receive an honorary doctor of science from Princeton University in 1958, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She then moved on into medical research to study sickle cell anemia.
Michael Croslin
Inventor and businessman Michael Croslin is best known for creating the Medtek 400 blood pressure that made getting your blood pressure and pulse read more accurate. “The old device left a lot to be desired,” Croslin once said in an interview. “The doctor had to watch a falling column of mercury and listen through a stethoscope.” Born in 1933 in Frederiksted, St Croix, U.S. Virgin Island, Croslin finished high school at 14 and graduated from the University of Wisconsin at age 17.
Mario Molina
If you enjoy clean air where you live, you may have Mario Molina to thank. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone – in other words, air pollution. Molina was born and raised in Mexico City, one of the most polluted cities in the world, so it is not surprising that today he is one of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on pollution and on the effects of chemical pollution on the environment. Today, he is a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the Massachusetts institute of Technology.
Katherine C. G. Johnson
Houston never had any problems as long as Katherine C.G. Johnson was on the job. Born in 1918, she was instrumental in NASA’s Flight Dynamics and Control Division. She assisted in and led development of systems for tracking spacecraft. It was her job to know exactly where Apollo astronauts were during their mission to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She is considered one of the pioneers of the American space movement.
Ralph Gardner-Chavis
One of 12 African-American scientists at the University of Chicago and at Columbia University who were on the team that constructed the atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan in 1945, Ralph Gardner-Chavis also worked with nuclear scientist Enrico Fermi. His primary research was on in the development of hard plastics, which opened the door to solutions to pollution and getting rid of hazardous waste.