Maria Telkes: Why Google honours her today | Science and Technology News

Telkes was an progressive scientist recognised for her contributions to the photo voltaic vitality applied sciences.

Hungarian-American scientist Maria Telkes is thought for her contributions to solar energy technologies.

Telkes, who died in 1995, invented the photo voltaic distiller in addition to the primary solar-powered heating system designed for residences.

On Monday, Google modified its brand in 12 nations to a doodle, or illustration, in her honour.

That is her story:

Adolescence

• Telkes was born on December 12, 1990, in Budapest, Hungary. She was the daughter of Aladar and Maria Laban de Telkes.
• Capturing vitality from the solar was an concept that intrigued the scientist from an early age.
• “I used to be solely 11 when a easy faculty experiment, the melting of sulphur, made me intensively inquisitive about chemistry,” Telkes wrote in 1964. “My mother and father had been amused and tolerant, even after a loud however innocent explosion. Avidly studying science books, I used to be experimenting.”
• As a freshman on the College of Budapest in Hungary, she as soon as mentioned that studying the ebook Vitality Sources of the Future by Kornel Zelovich was a defining second in her life.
• “The ebook defined that the same old vitality sources have geographical limitations, particularly within the much less developed tropical areas, however the solar is instantly overhead within the tropics, and also you don’t have to probe for it,” she mentioned.
• The ebook defined how the USA was experimenting with photo voltaic vitality, and he or she knew that was the place to go after acquiring her diploma.
• Telkes later studied at Hungary’s Eotvos Lorand College, the place she specialised in bodily chemistry and obtained a PhD in 1924.

Rays and shine! At this time’s #GoogleDoodle celebrates the lifetime of Dr. Mária Telkes, a pioneer in photo voltaic vitality who’s often known as The Solar Queen 👑

Study extra about her legacy right here → https://t.co/pGuuVif9Ra pic.twitter.com/Ks0rgPXIcA

— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) December 12, 2022

Journey to the US

• The following 12 months, Telkes arrived within the US and joined the Cleveland Clinic Basis as a biophysicist. Throughout her time there, she labored on know-how that enabled scientists to document mind waves.
• She turned an American citizen in 1937. Throughout World Warfare II, she was working on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how (MIT) as a member of its photo voltaic vitality committee.
• “Dr Godfrey Lowell Cabot was the primary to recognise the significance of systematic Photo voltaic Vitality Conversion,” Telkes wrote. “He created a basis for this function at [MIT]. I joined this group, being one of many comparatively few girls analysis associates at MIT for the subsequent 13 years.”
• Amid the struggle, Telkes developed a solar-powered water desalination machine, finishing a prototype in 1942. Her invention helped US troopers posted alongside seas get clear water.
• MIT additionally tasked Telkes and her colleagues with creating liveable solar-heated houses. Nevertheless, her proposed design failed and he or she was faraway from the committee.

‘Inconceivable issues curiosity me’

• Regardless of the setback, Telkes’s analysis continued. In 1948, on the age of 48, she, in partnership with architect Eleanor Raymond, designed the world’s first trendy residence heated with photo voltaic vitality.
• “It’s the issues imagined to be not possible that curiosity me. I love to do issues they are saying can’t be executed,” Telkes mentioned throughout an interview in 1942.
• At 53, she acquired a $45,000 grant from the Ford Basis to create a common photo voltaic oven.

‘The Solar Queen’

• In 1972, Telkes additionally helped construct the primary home to generate each warmth and electrical energy from the solar. 9 years later, she helped the US authorities to develop the primary totally solar-powered residence.
• She acquired the Society of Ladies Engineers Achievement Award in 1952. She retired at 77 and acquired a lifetime achievement award from the Nationwide Academy of Sciences Constructing Analysis Advisory Board.
• Telkes additionally has greater than 20 patents to her credit score. Her contributions to the photo voltaic vitality area earned her the nickname the “Solar Queen”.
• After spending a number of a long time within the US, Telkes returned in 1995 to Hungary, the place she handed away 10 days earlier than her ninety fifth birthday.