Maria Telkes
Physicist
Notable for her work in the field of solar energy, this prominent scientist invented the thermoelectric generator; the debut solar heat system; and a thermoelectricity-operated refrigerator.
After completing her doctorate in physical chemistry in her native Hungary, she relocated to the United States and conducted research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She was the 1952 recipient of the Society of Women Engineers Award and the 1977 winner of the American Solar Energy Society's Charles Greeley Abbot Award.
A native of Hungary, she settled in Boston, Massachusetts, during her early adulthood years and later lived and worked in Texas.
She and Farrington Daniels were both pioneers in the field of solar energy.