Shuji Nakamura (Japanese: 中村 修二, romanized: Nakamura Shūji; born May 22, 1954) is a Japanese–American electronics engineer and co-inventor of the blue LED, an important discovery in lighting technology. Because of this, Nakamura, along with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014. Nakamura works in the area of semiconductor technology.
Kary Banks Mullis was born on December 28, 1944, and died on August 7, 2019. He was an American biochemist who helped create the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. For this work, he shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith.
Lonnie George Johnson was born on October 6, 1949. He is an American inventor, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur. He is most famous for creating the popular Super Soaker water gun in 1989.
Maria Salomea Skłodowska Curie (Polish: [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska kiˈri]; born Skłodowska; November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934), known as Marie Curie (/ˈkjʊəri/ KURE-ee; French: [maʁi kyʁi]), was a Polish-born scientist who became a French citizen. She was a physicist and chemist. In 1903, she shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband, Pierre Curie, for their research on radioactivity, a term she created.
Hedy Lamarr ( / ˈ h ɛ d i / ; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler ; November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian and American actress and inventor. She was known for her success as a film star and for co-inventing a radio guidance system during World War II. After working briefly in films in Czechoslovakia, including the film Ecstasy (1933), which caused discussion, she left her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, and moved secretly to Paris.
Sir James Dyson was born on May 2, 1947. He is an English inventor, industrial designer, farmer, and business leader who started the Dyson company. He is most famous for creating the bagless vacuum cleaner, which uses a process called cyclonic separation to remove dirt.
Erna Schneider Hoover was born on June 19, 1926. She is an American mathematician who created a method for computer-controlled telephone switching. This method changed modern communication by preventing system overloads.
Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996) was an American electrical engineer, computer scientist, mathematician, and supercomputer architect. He designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for many years and founded Cray Research, a company that built many of these machines. Known as “the father of supercomputing,” Cray helped start the supercomputer industry.
Stephen Gary Wozniak (born August 11, 1950), also called Woz, is an American technology business person, electrical engineer, computer programmer, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) with his early business partner, Steve Jobs. During the 1970s and 1980s, his work at Apple helped make him widely known as an important leader in the personal computer revolution.
Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (April 23, 1941 – March 5, 2016) was an American computer programmer who created the first email program on the ARPANET system, the early version of the Internet, in 1971. This program was the first to allow users to send messages between people using different computers connected to ARPANET. Before this, messages could only be sent to others using the same computer.