Today’s Google Doodle is dedicated to Dr. Maria Telkes, Hungarian-born American physical chemist and biophysicist best known for her work in solar energy
Animated doodle presents Dr. Telkes along with some of her most famous inventions, including a water purifier, a solar-heated home, and a solar-powered stove.
Dr. Telkes was the first person to receive the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award that day in 1952.
Here’s everything you need to know about them.
Who was the doctor Maria Telkes?
Dr. Telkes was born in December 1990 in Budapest, Hungary.
She studied physical chemistry at the University of Budapest and received her PhD in 1924 before moving to the United States, where she accepted a position as a biophysicist at the Cleveland Clinical Foundation. In 1937 she became a US citizen.
Dr. Telkes joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a member of the Solar Energy Committee.
During World War II, she was asked by the United States government to help develop a solar distiller that would turn sea water into fresh water. This life-saving invention was used by soldiers stationed in the Pacific region.
She remained at MIT after the war and became an associate professor of metallurgy in 1945.
Telkes and her colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were tasked with building habitable solar-heated homes. Unfortunately, she proposed and developed a project that failed and was removed from the committee, but she stuck to her ideas.
With private funding from philanthropists, she created the Dover Sun House in 1948 in collaboration with architect Eleanor Raymond. The solar heated home was a success and helped bring the term “solar power” to the attention of the general public.
Great Britain explains: “Box-shaped solar panels capture sunlight and heat the air in the space between the double layer of glass and the black metal plate. The heated air then passed through the walls, where it transferred the heat to Glauber’s salts (crystallized sodium sulfate) for storage and later use.
Later in his career, Dr. Telkes commissioned the Ford Foundation to design a solar oven that is still in use today.
She then did solar research at prestigious institutions such as New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Delaware, earning over 20 patents during her career.
In 1980, she helped the US Department of Energy develop the world’s first solar-powered home in Carlisle, Massachusetts.
In 1952, Telkes was the first recipient of the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award. In 1977, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Sciences’ Building Research Advisory Board for her contributions to solar building technology and the Charles Greeley Abbott Award from the American Solar Society.
Source: I News
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