Irving Langmuir
Chemist
American chemist and physicist who invented the gas-filled incandescent lamp and the hydrogen welding technique while working at General Electric. He received a Nobel Prize in 1932 for his research in surface chemistry.
He attended the Columbia University School of Mines before earning his Ph.D. degree in 1906 under Nobel laureate Walther Nernst in Göttingen.
He helped invent the high vacuum tube after doing conducting research on light bulbs and diffusion pumps.
He married Marion Mersereau in 1912.
He loosely inspired the character Dr. Felix Hoenikker in Kurt Vonnegut's novel 'Cat's Cradle.'