INVENTION PROJECT - Key Persons
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- IBM Engineer
- Relationship: Company
- Relationship: Patent No
IBM engineer Benjamin Durfee, along with Clair Lake and Frank Hamilton, translated Harvard physicist Howard Aiken's concept for a large scale mechanical calculator into a working device that performed the desired mathematical operations. The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), also known as the Mark I, was designed to solve rapidly and accurately almost any mathematical problem.
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- Co - Founder & CEO, Steelike, Inc
As Akamai's Chief Technology Officer, Lewin was known for his brilliance. He published and presented several breakthrough papers at top computer science conferences and received several awards including the 1998 Morris Joseph Lewin Award for Best Masterworks Thesis Presentation at MIT. His master's thesis included some of the fundamental algorithms that make up the core of Akamai's services. He obtained his Master's Degree from MIT in 1997.
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- IBM Researchers
- Relationship: Company
- Storage Head
IBM researchers David Thompson and Lubomyr Romankiw invented the first practical magnetic thin film storage heads in the late 1970s, creating new designs for both read and write heads along with a new fabrication process. Thin film technology increased the density of data that could be stored on magnetic disks, even while the disk size was being substantially reduced, dramatically reducing the cost of data storage.
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- Relationship: School / University
Douglas Engelbart's patent for the mouse is only a representation of his pioneering work designing modern interactive computer environments. Engelbart was born and grew up near Portland, Oregon. He served in the Navy as an electronics technician during World War II, and received his B.S. from Oregon State University. After working for NASA's Ames Research Laboratory, he received a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He then joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), earning a number of patents related to computer components.
A main concern for Engelbart was how the computer could be used as a useful tool in tomorrow's office. While at SRI, he developed a hypermedia groupware system called NLS (oN-Line System). NLS utilized two-dimensional computerized text editing, and the mouse, used to position a pointer into text, was a critical component. During a 1968 demonstration, Engelbart first introduced NLS this was the world debut of the mouse, hypermedia, and on-screen video teleconferencing. His project became the second host on Arpanet, the predecessor of the Internet.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Engelbart was a Senior Scientist at Tymshare, Inc., later acquired by McDonnell-Douglas. In 1989, he founded The Bootstrap Institute to promote the development of collective IQ through worldwide computer networks.
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- NIHF Selection Board Ambassador / Partner, Thompson Coburn LLP
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- Relationship: School / University
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- Relationship: School / University
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Chappelle studied at the University of Washington, where he earned an M.A. in biology. In 1963, while working for NASA, Chappelle began exploring the qualities of light given off by different life forms. In charge of developing instruments used to scrape soil from Mars on NASA's Viking probe, Chappelle realized how chemicals gave off a measurable light when mixed with materials containing living cells. He applied this to detect bacteria in urine, blood, spinal fluids, drinking water, and foods.
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- Assistant Treasurer / Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Civeo Corporation ( Retired )
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- Vice Chairman / Retail Consultant, Dick 's Clothing and Sporting Goods ( Retired )
Retail Consultant, Dick's Clothing and Sporting Goods (retired)
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- Engineer
- Relationship: Company
George Alcorn is a pioneering physicist and engineer noted for his aerospace and semiconductor inventions. His x-ray imaging spectrometer, patented during his career at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), allowed for the detection of radio signatures at a more distant and accurate rate than previously possible and influenced the continued evolution of imaging devices.
Used with space telescopes and other satellites, x-ray imaging spectrometers provide highly useful data for a wide range of scientific and technical applications. With improvements that addressed structural and performance deficiencies, Alcorn's devices and their descendants have been used to conduct planetary mapping, search for new planets, create star charts to reveal motions of systems, and examine deep space phenomena.
A graduate of Occidental College with a B.S. in physics, Alcorn went on to receive his M.S. and his Ph.D. from Howard University. He conducted significant work in high-performance semiconductor devices at IBM, and joined NASA in 1978 where he worked for the remainder of his career. Alcorn was a founder of Saturday Academy, a weekend math-science honors program for inner-city middle school students. He also worked to encourage and support minority Ph.D. candidates in science and engineering.
Gordon Teal began his career in 1930 concentrating on better vacuum tubes at Bell Laboratories, but he would end it as the builder of the first commercial silicon transistor.
While with Bell Labs, Teal made himself an expert on how to grow the purified, perfect germanium crystals that were essential to the improved transistors then being designed by his colleague, William Shockley. His other achievements at Bell Labs resulted in 45 patents. In 1952, missing his hometown, Teal eagerly returned to Dallas to establish the Central Research Laboratories at Texas Instruments. He brought with him his method for "pulling" crystals, which by then included purified silicon. By the time Teal announced his working silicon transistors at a 1954 meeting, Texas Instruments had already begun production, skyrocketing the company and the silicon semiconductor industry to success.
Teal earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor University in 1927 and a Ph.D. from Brown in 1931. He left Texas Instruments in 1965 to become the first director of the National Bureau of Standards materials research division, but returned in 1967. After his retirement in 1972, Teal acted as a consultant to Texas Instruments.
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- Secretary / Chief Strategic Officer, National Inventors Hall of Fame Inc
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- Chairman and CEO, Ocean Tomo
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- Assistant Secretary / Partner, Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs LLC
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- Director and Graduate Professor
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- Co - Chairman / Director of Waldron Center of Entrepreneurship and Family Business, Harding University / Partner of Counsel, Davé Law Group
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- Relationship: Company
- Relationship: School / University
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- CEO
- President / CEO, National Inventors Hall of Fame Inc
Since joining the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) in 2004, Michael J. Oister has worked to expand our mission of recognizing and inspiring innovation in America. Mike, who holds more than 20 U.S. patents, first joined NIHF as President of the Invent Now Kids subsidiary and was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the NIHF parent company in 2009. In 2013, he accepted the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Mike has overseen a 398% increase in children served annually with over 235,000 students participating in the organization's educational programming in 2021. This growth also corresponds with a 549% increase in teachers trained nationally each year and a 126% increase in school district partnerships. Since Michael became CEO, the National Inventors Hall of Fame organization's assets have increased by 166% while liabilities have only increased by 51%, and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum has doubled in square footage and exhibit space. The organization has benefited from the implementation of a high-service, user-friendly delivery and training business model for education outreach programs in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. His demonstrated success of building strong partnerships, implementing new programs and cultivating sustainable businesses are a perfect fit for the National Inventors Hall of Fame's needs as it grows and expands its businesses and mission.
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- Vice President / Chief Operating Officer, National Inventors Hall of Fame Inc
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- Vice President Omni - Channel Pricing Strategy and Execution
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- President and Founder, Davé Law Group
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- Chief Executive Officer, JumpStart, Inc
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- Treasurer / Chief Accounting Officer, National Inventors Hall of Fame Inc
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- Relationship: School / University
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- Product Development Manager, Eastman Kodak ( Retired )
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- Relationship: School / University
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- Publisher, Daily Record, Inc