Famous Inventors Born in May
Date of Birth: May 16, 1950
Profession: German physicist. Nobel laureate.
Notable Works: He discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Marcel Benoist Prize (1986); Fritz London Memorial Prize (1987); Nobel Prize in Physics (1987); EPS Europhysics Prize (1988)
Date of Birth: May 14, 1981
Profession: computer scientist and inventor.
Notable Works: Mistry is the former President and CEO of STAR Labs (Samsung Technology & Advanced Research Labs). He is currently the founder and CEO of TWO, an Artificial Reality startup.
Some of his other works include Mouseless, an invisible computer mouse; Sparsh, a novel way to copy-paste data between digital devices; Quickies, intelligent sticky notes; Blinkbot, a blink-controlled robot.
Mistry has a Master of Design degree from IIT Bombay and a Master in Media Arts and Sciences degree from MIT.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: The Invention Award by Popular Science (2009) and Young Global Leader (2013)
Sally Kristen Ride
Date of Birth: May 26, 1951
Profession: American astronaut and physicist
Notable Works: At the age of 32, Ride became the youngest and the first American woman to enter low-earth orbit space (1983). She is known for her two missions aboard the Challenger Shuttle: STS-7 and STS-41-G and for her impact on US Space Policy (The Ride Report)
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Jefferson Award for Public Service, The Von Braun Award, The Theodore Roosevelt Award and NASA Space Flight Medal. Ms. Ride was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and Astronaut Hall of Fame
Lillian Moller Gilbreth
Date of Birth: May 24, 1878
Profession: American psychologist, industrial engineer
Notable Works: Considered one of the first industrial psychologists, Gilbreth helped industrial engineers recognize the importance of psychological dimensions in time and motion study
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Hoover Medal (1966), National Academy of Engineering (first woman elected) (1965)
Alan Curtis Kay
Date of Birth: May 17, 1940
Profession: American computer scientist
Notable Works: he created what is now known as the world’s first portable notebook, the “Dynabook,” which later helped to evolve the laptop computer industry. In 1970, Kay joined Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC).
Prestigious Honours and Awards: ACM Turing Award (2003); Kyoto Prize; Charles Stark Draper Prize
Vincent du Vigneaud
Date of Birth: May 18, 1901
Profession: American biochemist. Nobel laureate.
Notable Works: He discovered the isolation and synthesis of two pituitary hormones: vasopressin, which acts on the muscles of the blood vessels, causing an increase in blood pressure; oxytocin, the principal agent causing contractions of the uterus and secretion of milk. du Vigneaud also contributed to the understanding of vitamins, insulin, and metabolic reactions.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: William H. Nichols Medal (1945); Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1948); Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1955); Willard Gibbs Award (1956)
Emile Berliner
Date of Birth: May 20, 1851
Profession: German-American inventor
Notable Works: He invented the lateral-cut flat disc record used with a gramophone. Berliner also invented what was probably the first radial aircraft engine (1908), a helicopter (1919), and acoustical tiles (1920)
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Elliott Cresson Medal (1913)
Anatol Rapoport
Date of Birth: May 22, 1911
Profession: Ukrainian mathematical psychologist
Notable Works: He combined his mathematical expertise with psychological insights into the study of game theory, social networks, and semantics.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Lentz International Peace Research Prize
About The Author
Angelina Kushnarova
Angelina Kushnarova (Sverediuk) was born in Ukraine. She graduated from Ternopil Medical University with a specialization in Medicine and completed an internship in Radiology at Lviv University. She worked as a Radiologist, while also working as a web developer.