Mária Telkes, (born December 12, 1900, Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now in Hungary]—died December 2, 1995, Budapest), Hungarian-born American bodily chemist and biophysicist finest recognized for her invention of the photo voltaic distiller and the primary solar-powered heating system designed for residences. She additionally invented different units able to storing power captured from daylight.
Telkes, daughter of Aladar Telkes and Maria Laban de Telkes, was raised in Budapest. She studied bodily chemistry on the University of Budapest, graduating with a B.A. in 1920 and a Ph.D. in 1924. She turned an teacher on the establishment in 1924 however determined to immigrate to the United States after visiting a relative, who served on the time because the Hungarian consul in Cleveland. In 1925 she accepted a place as a biophysicist for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, the place she labored with American surgeon George Washington Crile to create a photoelectric system that recorded mind waves.
Telkes turned an American citizen in 1937. That similar yr she turned a analysis engineer at Westinghouse Electric, the place she developed devices that transformed warmth into electrical power; nevertheless, she made her first forays into photo voltaic power analysis in 1939. That yr, as a part of the Solar Energy Conversion Project on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she labored on thermoelectric units powered by daylight. Telkes was assigned to the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development throughout World War II, and it was there that she created one in all her most necessary innovations: a photo voltaic distiller able to vaporizing seawater and recondensing it into drinkable water. Although the system was carried aboard life rafts in the course of the battle, it was additionally scaled as much as complement the water calls for of the Virgin Islands. She remained at MIT after the battle, changing into an affiliate analysis professor in metallurgy in 1945.
Until the tip of her profession, Telkes continued to develop solar-energy purposes and obtained a number of patents for her work. Together with American architect Eleanor Raymond, she designed and constructed the world’s first trendy residence heated with photo voltaic power. The home was in-built Dover, Massachusetts, in 1948. Boxlike photo voltaic collectors captured daylight and warmed the air in a compartment between a double layer of glass and a black sheet of metallic. Warmed air was then piped into the partitions, the place it transferred warmth to Glauber’s salts (crystallized sodium sulfate) for storage and later use. She improved upon current heat-exchanger expertise to create photo voltaic stoves and photo voltaic heaters, receiving a $45,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in 1953 to create a common photo voltaic oven that could possibly be tailored to be used by folks dwelling in any respect latitudes. She additionally labored to develop supplies able to enduring the temperature extremes of house. In 1980 she assisted the U.S. Department of Energy within the improvement of the world’s first solar-electric residence, which was in-built Carlisle, Massachusetts.
In 1952 Telkes turned the primary recipient of the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award. In 1977 she obtained a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Sciences Building Research Advisory Board for her contributions to solar-heated constructing expertise and the Charles Greeley Abbot Award from the American Solar Energy Society.