Women's History Month

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Women's History Month
Women's History Month

Dr. Maria Telkes. September 1956 photo.

[adapted from Wikipedia]
Mária Telkes (1900 – 1995) was a Hungarian-American biophysicist and inventor who worked on solar energy technologies.

She moved to the United States in 1925 to work as a biophysicist. She became an American citizen in 1937 and started work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to create practical uses of solar energy in 1939.

During World War II, she developed a solar distillation device to extract salt from seawater to generate potable drinking water, deployed at the end of the war, saving the lives of downed airmen and torpedoed sailors.

After the war, she became an associate research professor at MIT.

Telkes, often called by colleagues "The Sun Queen", is considered one of the founders of solar thermal storage systems. In the 1940s she and architect Eleanor Raymond created one of the first solar-heated houses, the Dover Sun House, which stored solar energy during the daytime. In 1953 they created a solar oven for people at various latitudes that could be used by children.

In 1952, Telkes became the first recipient of the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award. She was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Sciences Building Research Advisory Board in 1977. Telkes registered more than 20 patents.

For more information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1ria_Telkes

Photo credit: Library of Congress / New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Telkes_NYWTS.jpg

Taken on: December 12, 2022
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