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Mária Telkes

File:Maria_Telkes_NYWTS.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Mária Telkes

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Also known as Mária Telkes Arefereas, Maria Telkes, Mária Theresa Telkes, the Sun Queen

Hungarian–American scientist and inventor (1900–1995)

Key facts

Born
( 1900-12-12 ) 12 December 1900, Budapest , Austria-Hungary
Died
2 December 1995 (1995-12-02) (aged 94), Budapest, Hungary
Other name
Sun Queen
Alma mater
University of Budapest, Ph.D. Physical Chemistry
Known for
Solar Energy Technologies
Board member of
Solar Energy Society
Awards
National Inventors Hall of Fame , Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award, National Academy of Sciences , Building Research Advisory Board Award
Discipline
Physics , Thermoelectricity
Institutions
Cleveland Clinic Foundation , Westinghouse, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , New York University , University of Delaware
Projects
Water-powered Desalination machines , Dover Sun House , Solar powered oven
Significant advance
Solar heating, cooling, and thermal storage systems (several patents)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Mária
Gender
female
Citizenship
United States
Place of birth
Budapest
Place of death
Budapest
Occupation
inventor
Languages spoken
Hungarian
Field of work
thermoelectricity
Image
Maria Telkes NYWTS.jpg
Show 7 more facts
Commons category
Mária Telkes
date of birth
1900-12-12
date of death
1995-12-02
Commons Creator page
Mária Telkes
interested in
renewable energy
birth name
Telkes Mária Terézia Zsófia
nickname
the Sun Queen
Sources (10)

via Wikidata · CC0

~16 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Mária Telkes (December 12, 1900 – December 2, 1995) was a Hungarian-American biophysicist, engineer, 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mária Telkes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.