Famous Inventors Born in March

Albert Einstein.

Date of Birth: 14 March 1879.

Profession: Theoretical physicist.

Notable Works: The contributions made by Albert Einstein to the field of science form the primary study material for modern-day science textbooks. His General and Special Theories of Relativity are still widely studied in institutions worldwide; he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. Mr.Einstein is also known for developing the Mass-Energy Equivalence Formula, expressed as E = mc2. He was also the inventor of various devices, including the Einstein Refrigerator.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: He was the winner of the Nobel Prize in the year 1921. He also won the Gold Medal offered by the Royal Astronomical Society in the year 1926; the Max-Planck Medal in the year 1929. 

Alexander Graham Bell.

Date of Birth: 03 March 1847

Profession: Scientist, inventor, engineer, & innovator.

Notable Works: He is widely recognized around the world as the creator, inventor, and patent holder of the first practical telephone in 1876. It was on 10th March. He was also the founder of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885; which later became AT&T, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. He was also the founder of twisted-pair cabling as well as the graphophone. 

Prestigious Honours and Awards: He was awarded the John Fritz Medal in the year 1907; the Elliott Cresson Medal in the year 1912; the Hughes Medal in the year 1913, as well as the IEEE Edison Medal in the year 1914. 

Kalpana Chawla. 

Date of Birth: 17 March 1962.

Profession: Astronaut & Engineer.

Notable Works: Counted amongst the best Indian scientists born in March. Who made history as the first woman of Indian origin to travel in space. Tragically, her final spaceflight was aboard the STS-107 mission, which was also the final flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, in 2003. Despite the unfortunate outcome of the mission, Dr. Chawla’s legacy as a pioneering astronaut and role model for aspiring scientists and engineers continues to inspire people around the world.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: She was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004 and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in the year 2003. Along with that, she was also awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal.

Emmy Noether.

Date of Birth: 23 March 1882

Profession: Mathematician.

Notable Works: Noether was considered to be one of the leading mathematicians during her time. Her notable contributions were to the study of abstract algebra. She discovered Noether’s First and Second Theorem, which are fundamental in mathematical physics. As one of the leading mathematicians of her time, Noether developed some theories of rings, fields, and algebras.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: She was awarded the Ackermann–Teubner Memorial Award in 1932. 

René Descartes 

Date of Birth: 31 March 1596

Profession: French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician

Notable Works: Descartes developed a philosophy that emphasized reason as the key to knowledge. He is known for his famous quote, “I think, therefore I am” which illustrates his belief that the only thing we can know for certain is our own existence. Descartes invented analytic geometry, which is the use of algebraic equations to describe geometric shapes. Mind-Body Dualism: Descartes believed in the separation of mind and body, which had significant implications for the field of philosophy of mind.

Edward Condon.

Date of Birth: 2 March 1902

Profession: Nuclear Physicist.

Notable Works: The significant contributions that he made in the development and creation of nuclear as well as radar weapons during World War II as an integral part of the Manhattan Project are known all over the world.  

Prestigious Honours and Awards: In the year 1986, he was awarded the Frederic Ives Medal.

Ann Kiessling.

Date of Birth: 29 March 1942.

Profession: Biologist & Inventor.

Notable Works: Discovery of reverse transcriptase activity in normal human cells in the human body. Founder of the Special Program of Assisted Reproduction, and Director of the Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation. 

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Dr. Kiessling was presented with the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award for Biotechnology and Medicine in 2009. The Central Washington University Distinguished Alumni Award in the year 2010. She also got an Honorary Doctorate in Cell and Molecular Biology from Oregon State University (2014).

Samuel Slocum.

Date of Birth: 4 March 1792.

Profession: Inventor & Manufacturer.

Notable Works: He invented the machine for the production of pins. Slocum formed a pin manufacturing company, Slocum and Jillion. He invented a “Machine for Sticking Pins into Paper”; which was the first stapler. In fact, this patent from September 30, 1841, Patent #2275, is for a device used for packaging pins.

Sameera Moussa

Date of Birth: 3 March 1917 

Profession: first female Egyptian nuclear physicist.

Notable Works: Moussa believed in Atoms for Peace. She said – “My wish is for nuclear treatment of cancer to be as available and as cheap as Aspirin”. Moussa worked hard for this purpose and throughout her intensive research; she came up with a historic equation that would help break the atoms of cheap metals such as copper, paving the way for a cheap nuclear bomb. Sameera Moussa was the first woman to work at Cairo University.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.

Date of Birth: 7 March 1765.

Profession: French inventor & photographer

Notable Works: Niépce developed heliography, a technique he used to create the world’s oldest surviving product of a photographic process; a print made from a photoengraved printing plate in 1825. In 1826 (or 1827) he used a primitive camera to produce the oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene. He conceived one of the world’s first internal combustion engines, which he created and developed with his older brother Claude Niépce.

Sir Benjamin Thompson,  Count Rumford.

Date of Birth: 26 March 1753 

Profession: American physicist and inventor.

Notable Works: Thompson challenged established physical theories that were part of the 19th-century revolution in thermodynamics. He discovered the relationship between heat and mechanical work led to the development of the mechanical theory of heat. He also drew designs for warships. Thompson was an active and prolific inventor, developing improvements for chimneys, fireplaces and industrial furnaces, as well as inventing the double boiler, a kitchen range, and a drip coffeepot.

He also invented Rumford’s Soup, a soup for the poor, and established the cultivation of potatoes in Bavaria. He studied methods of cooking, heating, and lighting, including the relative costs and efficiencies of wax candles, tallow candles, and oil lamps.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Colonel, King’s American Dragoons. Knighted, 1784. Count of the Holy Roman Empire, 1791. The crater Rumford on the Moon is named after him.

Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen.

Date of Birth: 30 March 1811.

Profession: German chemist and inventor.

Notable Works:  He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered cesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. Bunsen also developed several gas-analytical methods, was a pioneer in photochemistry, and did early work in the field of organic arsenic chemistry. With Peter Desaga he developed the Bunsen burner, an improvement on the laboratory burners then in use.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Copley medal (1860); Davy Medal (1877); Albert Medal (1898);

Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas.

Date of Birth: 16 March 1925

Profession: Mexican chemist.

Notable Works: Among his multiple contributions to world science is the synthesis on October 15, 1951, when Miramontes was only 26 years old, of norethisterone (norethindrone), that was to become the progestin used in one of the first three oral contraceptives (combined oral contraceptive pills). 

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Mexican National Prize in Chemistry (1986). Top Chemical Engineer of all times (2011).

David Baltimore.

Date of Birth: 7 March 1938.

Profession: American biologist, Nobel laureate.

Notable Works: Baltimore’s greatest contribution to virology was his discovery of reverse transcriptase which is essential for the reproduction of retroviruses such as HIV and was discovered independently, and at about the same time, by Satoshi Mizutani and Temin

Prestigious Honours and Awards: EMBO Member (1983). NAS Award in Molecular Biology (1974). Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1975). Sir Hans Krebs Medal (1997). National Medal of Science (1999).

Otto Hahn.

Date of Birth: 8 March 1879

Profession:  German chemist; Nobel laureate.

Notable Works:  Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered radioactive isotopes of radium, thorium, protactinium and uranium. He also discovered the phenomena of atomic recoil and nuclear isomerism and pioneered rubidium-strontium dating. In 1938, he discovered nuclear fission and received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1944). Nuclear fission was the basis for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Emil Fischer Medal (1919); Cannizzaro Prize (1939). Copernicus Prize (1941). Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1944).
Max Planck Medal (1949). Pour le Mérite (1952).
Faraday Lectureship Prize (1956). ForMemRS (1957). Wilhelm Exner Medal (1958).
Hugo Grotius Medal (1958). Legion of Honour (1959). Enrico Fermi Award (1966).

Archer John Porter Martin.

Date of Birth: 1 March 1910

Profession: English chemist, Nobel laureate

Notable Works: Mr. Martin developed partition chromatography whilst working on the separation of amino acids, and later developed gas-liquid chromatography.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1952); John Price Wetherill Medal (1959)

Julius Wagner-Jauregg.

Date of Birth: 7 March 1857

Profession: Austrian neuroscientist, Nobel laureate

Notable Works: The main work pursued by Wagner-Jauregg throughout his life was related to the treatment of mental disease by inducing a fever, an approach known as pyrotherapy. He developed a treatment for GPI using malaria. He was the first psychiatrist to receive the Nobel Prize.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1927). Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1935)

Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt 

Date of Birth: 24 March 1903

Profession: German biochemist, Nobel laureate

Notable Works: Butenandt was the first person to isolate androsterone and estrone.
He was also involved in the development of synthetic hormones.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1939). Kriegsverdienstkreuz (1942).

Paul Ehrlich 

Date of Birth: 14 March 1854

Profession: German physician and scientist; Nobel laureate.

Notable Works: Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure for syphilis in 1909 and inventing the precursor technique to Gram staining bacteria. Ehrlich’s laboratory discovered arsphenamine (Salvarsan), the first effective medicinal treatment for syphilis, thereby initiating and also naming the concept of chemotherapy. He also made a decisive contribution to the development of an antiserum to combat diphtheria and conceived a method for standardizing therapeutic serums.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1908). Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh (1914)

John Hasbrouck Van Vleck 

Date of Birth: 13 March 1899

Profession: American physicist and mathematician; Nobel laureate.

Notable Works: J. H. Van Vleck established the fundamentals of the quantum mechanical theory of magnetism, crystal field theory and ligand field theory (chemical bonding in metal complexes). He is regarded as the Father of Modern Magnetism. Also, he participated in the Manhattan Project.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Irving Langmuir Award (1965). National Medal of Science (1966). Elliott Cresson Medal (1971). Lorentz Medal (1974). Nobel Prize in Physics (1977).

Val Logsdon Fitch

Date of Birth: 10 March 1923 

Profession: American nuclear physicist; Nobel laureate.

Notable Works: Fitch and Cronin carried out their famous experiment in 1964 at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, where they observed the decay of neutral kaons (a type of subatomic particle) and found that the rate of decay was not the same for matter and antimatter particles. This was a groundbreaking discovery that fundamentally changed our understanding of the nature of matter and antimatter.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: E. O. Lawrence Award (1968). John Price Wetherill Medal (1976). Nobel Prize in Physics (1980). National Medal of Science (1993).

Sir John Cowdery Kendrew

Date of Birth: 24 March 1917

Profession: English biochemist; Nobel laureate.

Notable Works: Kendrew determined the structure of the protein myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle cells. He determined the first atomic structures of proteins using X-ray crystallography with Max Perutz. Their work was done at what is now the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1962). EMBO Member (1964). Royal Medal (1965).

Edward Calvin Kendall

Date of Birth: March 8, 1886

Profession: American chemist. Nobel laureate.

Notable Works: His most notable discovery was the isolation of thyroxine, although it was not the work he received the most accolades for. Along with associates, Kendall was involved with the isolation of glutathione and determining its structure. He also isolated several steroids from the adrenal gland cortex, one of which was initially called Compound E. Working with Mayo Clinic physician Philip Showalter Hench, Compound E was used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. The compound was eventually named cortisone.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Lasker Award (1949). Passano Foundation (1950). Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1950). Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1951)

Walter Kohn

Date of Birth: 9 March 1923

Profession: Austrian-American physicist and  chemist; Nobel laureate

Notable Works: Kohn played the leading role in the development of density functional theory, which made it possible to calculate quantum mechanical electronic structure by equations involving the electronic density. This computational simplification led to more accurate calculations on complex systems as well as many new insights, and it has become an essential tool for materials science, condensed-phase physics, and the chemical physics of atoms and molecules.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (1961). National Medal of Science (1988). Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1998)

Reona Esaki (also known as Leo Esaki)

Date of Birth: 12 March 1925

Profession: Japanese physicist; Nobel laureate

Notable Works: He discovered the phenomenon of electron tunnelling in semiconductors. This discovery led to the development of the tunnel diode, the first quantum electronic device that opened up new possibilities for electronic technology. Esaki also made significant contributions to developing other electronic devices, including the Esaki diode and the superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: apan Academy Prize (1965). Nobel Prize in Physics (1973). IEEE Medal of Honor (1991). Japan Prize (1998)