Maria Telkes

Maria Telkes, one of the first pioneers of solar energy who believed the power of the sun could change human lives, is the subject of Monday's Google ...

She died on December 2, 1995, in the Hungarian capital. The following year, she relocated to the US and accepted a position as a biophysicist, becoming a US citizen in 1937. During World War II, the US government asked her to assist in the development of a solar distiller that converted seawater into fresh water.

Visionary Hungarian-American scientist foresaw the potential of renewable power.

I like to do things they say cannot be done.” After several years working in industry in the 1960s for Curtiss-Wright Company, Cryo-Therm and Melpar, Dr Telkes returned to academia and the development of domestic solar power, first at the University of Delaware’s Institute of Energy Conversion at the decade’s end, where she worked on photovoltaic cells, and later worked for the US Department of Energy. [brain waves](/topic/brain-waves) at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation – where she co-wrote the book Phenomenon of Life with her mentor, George Washington Crile – and then for [Westinghouse](/topic/westinghouse) studying the conversion of heat into electricity.

Also known as the 'Sun Queen', the Hungarian-American biophysicist created devices that were capable of capturing and storing solar energy.

Telkes was an innovative scientist recognised for her contributions to the solar energy technologies.

- In 1972, Telkes also helped build the first house to generate both heat and electricity from the sun. - Telkes also has more than 20 patents to her credit. - Despite the setback, Telkes’s research continued. - “Dr Godfrey Lowell Cabot was the first to recognise the importance of systematic Solar Energy Conversion,” Telkes wrote. - She became an American citizen in 1937. “He created a foundation for this purpose at [MIT].