Meet the Inventors Behind Revolutionary Technologies

At the National Inventors Hall of Fame^® (NIHF), we have the distinct privilege of honoring inventors who have developed technology that has changed the world.

Below, we invite you to learn more about a few NIHF Inductees whose technological innovations continue to improve the lives of people around the world.

Marian Croak — VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Technology

While working at Bell Labs (later AT&T), Marian Croak became interested in how technology could be used to positively impact people’s lives. As a network engineer, she began exploring the potential of digital communications, and with the help of her team, she developed technology to transmit voice communication digitally using the internet. Today, VoIP is used by millions of people each day and has become vital for remote work conferencing and personal communications.

Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, Stan Mazor – Microprocessor

Through the late 1960s, many researchers and engineers began to believe in the possibility of developing a computer that could fit on a single chip. Together, Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff and Stan Mazor worked together to make this single chip design possible and were able to fit an entire computer within a tiny space with just over 200 transistors, creating the first microprocessor. Found in virtually every electronic device that we enjoy today, the team’s invention is widely considered one of the most important developments of the last half of the 20^th century.

Jaap Haartsen — Bluetooth^® Wireless Technology

In 1994, Jaap Haartsen laid the foundation for the system that would later be known as Bluetooth Wireless Technology. This technology conveniently connects electronic devices to each other, from printers and headphones to smartphones and computer mice. Most of us benefit from this innovation each and every day. Haartsen founded the Bluetooth Special Interest Group in 1998 and served as chairman for the SIG air protocol specifications group from 1998 to 2000. This work helped Bluetooth meet necessary regulatory requirements and standardize the technology around the world.

Arogyaswami Paulraj — MIMO Wireless Technology

Arogyaswami Paulraj is responsible for pioneering MIMO — Multiple Input, Multiple Output — a type of wireless technology that has revolutionized broadband internet access for billions of people across the world. By expanding network coverage and improving the speed of transfer rates, Paulraj’s innovation has become essential for all current (Wi-Fi and 4G mobile) and future broadband wireless communications. Unlike previous radio technologies, MIMO uses multiple antennas at both the transmit and receive stations. Paired with special transmit coding and receiver decoding techniques, MIMO converts multiple data streams into a single radio channel to increase speed.

Radia Perlman — Robust Network Routing and Bridging

Radia Perlman has played a significant role in both developing and growing the internet. In 1985, she created the Spanning-Tree Protocol (STP), which expanded the capabilities of ethernet technology by allowing it to create large networks containing hundreds of thousands of nodes spread across a wide area. Additionally, Perlman worked to make internet routing more reliable and scalable by developing techniques to make this process more efficient and resilient.

Learn More About Our Incredible Inductees

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