Maria Telkes Bio, Age, Parents, Husband, Children, Net Worth

Maria Telkes Bio, Age, Parents, Husband, Children, Net Worth – Mária Telkes was a Hungarian-American solar energy biophysicist, scientist, and inventor.

Before moving to the United States, Mária Telkes studied physical chemistry at Eötvös Loránd University. In 1924, she received her Ph.D.

Some awards that she received include OSRD Certificate of Merit for the Desalination Unit, Inaugural Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award, Charles Greeley Abbot Award, American Solar Energy Society, Induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and Google Doodle on her 122nd birth anniversary.

Maria Telkes Biography

Maria Telkes was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1900, and attended elementary and secondary school there. She then attended Eotvos Lorand University, where she earned a B.A. in physical chemistry in 1920 and a PhD in 1924.

Telkes visited a relative who was the Hungarian consul in Cleveland, Ohio, when she moved to the United States in 1924. She was hired there to work at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where she studied the energy produced by living organisms.

Telkes did some research while working at the foundation, and they invented a photoelectric mechanism that could record brain waves under the direction of George Washington Crile. They also collaborated on a book called Phenomenon of Life.

Telkes then went on to work as a biophysicist at Westinghouse. She inquired about working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) new solar energy program. She was hired in 1939 and worked there until 1953.

Telkes joined the University of Delaware’s Institute of Energy Conversion in 1969. She began researching photovoltaic cells, which generate electricity. She assisted in the construction of the first house to generate both heat and electricity from the sun in 1971.

She assisted the US Department of Energy in developing and building the first fully solar-powered home, Carlisle House, in Carlisle, Massachusetts, in 1981.

She addressed the first International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists in New York in 1964.

Maria Telkes Age

Maria Telkes was born on December 12, 1900, so at the time of her death in 1995, she was 94 years old.

Maria Telkes Parents

Her parents were Aladar and Mária Laban de Telkes.

Maria Telkes Husband – Did Maria Telkes get married?

She is on record as not having had a husband.

Maria Telkes Children

She did not have children as well.

Maria Telkes Net Worth

Although she is not alive currently, she reportedly has a net worth of $1 billion.

How did Maria Telkes contribute to the field of electricity?

Telkes’ system was capable of capturing and storing solar energy, which was then distributed as needed by fans. Her storage method was based on chemistry; she devised a method for storing solar-generated energy chemically by crystallizing a sodium sulfate solution.

How did Maria Telkes change the world?

During WWII, Maria Telkes worked at the Office of Scientific Research and Development, where she developed one of her most important inventions: a solar distiller capable of vaporizing seawater and recondensing it into drinkable water.