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Learn About Famous Inventors Who Have Changed the World

Browse List of Inductees
Browse List of Inductees
Showing 101 - 125 of 173 results

Willard S. Boyle

Charge-Coupled Device

Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the charge-coupled device (CCD), a light-sensitive microchip that enabled dramatic advances in digital…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,858,232
Died:
Military Service: Royal Canadian Navy

Philo Taylor Farnsworth

Television System

Philo Taylor Farnsworth's electronic inventions made possible today's TV industry, the TV shots from the moon, and satellite pictures. Born in Beaver…
Inducted in: 1984
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,773,980
Died:

Bernard Oliver

Pulse Code Modulation

Bernard Oliver, one of the most prolific and influential inventors of his generation, helped give birth to the era of digital information with his…
Inducted in: 2004
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,801,281
Died:
Katharine Burr Blodgett

Katharine Burr Blodgett

Langmuir-Blodgett Films

Physicist Katharine Burr Blodgett experimented with monolayers, or organic films only a single molecule thick, initiating a new scientific discipline…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,220,860
Died:
Paul Baran headshot

Paul Baran

Digital Packet Switching

Paul Baran developed a fundamental concept behind today's advanced communications networking systems: digital packet switching. Baran was born in…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,438,511
Died:

Alexander Winton

Automobile, Bicycle, and Diesel Applications

One of the most skillful and insightful automobile pioneers of his time, Alexander Winton was one of the first Americans to build automobiles for…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 582,108
Died:

Robert W. Bower

Self-Aligned Gate MOSFET

Robert Bower invented the Field-Effect Device with Insulated Gate known as the Self-Aligned Gate MOSFET, which has created the fast, design-stable…
Inducted in: 1997
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,472,712
Died:
Military Service: U.S. Air Force

Vannevar Bush

Differential Analyzer

In 1931, Vannevar Bush completed work on his most significant invention, the differential analyzer, a precursor to the modern computer. It used…
Inducted in: 2004
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,032,253
Died:

Albert B. Dick

Duplicating Machine

Albert Dick, who founded the A.B. Dick Company in 1883, invented the mimeograph stencil in 1884 based on an early design by Thomas Edison. Dick…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 538,663
Died:
Martin (John) M. Atalla headshot

Martin (John) M. Atalla

MOSFET

John Atalla is one of the inventors of the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), the most widely employed type of integrated…
Inducted in: 2009
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,206,670
Died:

Harold McMaster

Tempered Glass

Harold McMaster achieved the centuries-old goal of producing high-quality strengthened, or tempered, glass. His invention is indispensable in modern…
Inducted in: 2008
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,994,711
Died:

Jay W. Forrester

Random Access Memory

Jay W. Forrester was a pioneer in early digital computer development and invented random-access, coincident-current magnetic storage, which became…
Inducted in: 1979
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 2,736,880
Died:

Stephen Wilcox, Jr.

Improvement in Steam Generators

Stephen Wilcox worked with George Babcock to invent the water tube steam boiler. This boiler allowed safer and more efficient production of steam.…
Inducted in: 1997
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 65,042
Died:

Valdemar Poulsen

Magnetic Wire Recorder

Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen demonstrated magnetic recording in 1898. While working at the Copenhagen Telephone Company, Poulsen began…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 661,619
Died:

Gerd Karl Binnig

Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Gerd Karl Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer based their scanning tunneling microscope (STM) on a principle of quantum mechanics which allows the surface of…
Inducted in: 1994
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,343,993
Robert Kahn headshot

Robert E. Kahn

Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf created the architecture for the Internet and collaborated on the design of software known as the Transmission Control…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 6,574,628
Lubomyr T. Romankiw

Lubomyr Romankiw

Magnetic Thin-Film Storage Head

IBM researchers Lubomyr Romankiw and David Thompson invented magnetic thin film storage heads in the late 1970s, creating new designs for both read…
Inducted in: 2012
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,908,194
Died:

Herman A. Affel

Coaxial Cable

Herman Affel and Lloyd Espenschied invented coaxial cable at AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1929. The coaxial cable opened a wide spectrum…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,835,031
Died:

Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield

CT Scan

In the late 1960s, Godfrey Hounsfield began developing computer-assisted tomography, or CAT scanning, an improved form of diagnostic imaging. At…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,965,357
Died:
Military Service: Royal Air Force
Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell

Improvement in Telegraphy

Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone grew out of his research on improving the telegraph. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, he spent one…
Inducted in: 1974
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 174,465
Died:
National Inventors Hall of Fame® Inductee Eric Fossum, who invented the CMOS image sensor

Eric R. Fossum

CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensor Camera-on-a-Chip

Eric Fossum invented the CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) active pixel sensor camera-on-a-chip, the miniaturized camera technology that…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 5,471,515
Dennis Ritchie

Dennis Ritchie

UNIX Operating System

Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson’s creation of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language were pivotal developments in the progress of…
Inducted in: 2019
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 4,135,240
Died:

Philip Drinker

Respiration Apparatus

Philip Drinker invented the first iron lung, a respirator that has helped save lives, especially those afflicted with polio and other cases of…
Inducted in: 2007
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 1,834,580
Died:

Charles Jenkins

Motion Picture Projector

Charles Jenkins was an innovator of early cinema and one of the first inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic…
Inducted in: 2011
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 671,111
Died:
Robert W. Gore headshot

Robert W. Gore

ePTFE, Known by the GORE-TEX® Brand Name

Robert W. Gore invented a new form of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) widely known by the GORE-TEX® brand name. This highly porous yet very strong…
Inducted in: 2006
Born:
U.S. Patent No.: 3,953,566
Died: