Dr. Betty Harris patented a spot test for detecting 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB)

Dr. Betty Wright Harris born on 29 July 1940 During a leave of absence from LANL, Dr. Harris was the chief of chemical technology for Solar Turbine Inc., where she managed the technical laboratories and investigated cold-end corrosion of super alloys, which was caused by sulfuric acid and soot in gas turbine engines. For the […]

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National Inventors Hall of Fame

James Edward Maceo West born February 10, 1931 James Edward Maceo West (born February 10, 1931 in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia) is an American inventor and acoustician. He holds over 250 foreign and U.S. patents for the production and design of microphones and techniques for creating polymer foil electrets. Along with Gerhard Sessler, West […]

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Who invented the X-Ray Spectrometer? Answer: George Edward Alcorn Jr.

George Edward Alcorn Jr.  Born March 22, 1940 X-Ray SpectrometerUS Patent No. 4,472,728 Inducted in 2015  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 […]

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Dr. Alcorn served as the project manager for the ALTMS (Airborne Lidar Topographical Mapping System)

 Dr. Alcorn joined NASA in 1978 and has held a variety of research and administrative positions with the agency. He has headed teams to develop new technologies for space stations and methods for detecting life in space, and he has directed programs for commercialization of NASA technologies.  He also helped establish NASA’s first technology incubator, […]

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Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson — 1995 Appointed chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Shirley Ann Jackson   FREng  (born August 5, 1946  In 1995 President Bill Clinton appointed Jackson to serve as Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), becoming the first woman and first African American to hold that position. At the NRC, she had “ultimate authority for all NRC functions pertaining to an emergency involving an […]

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