October 18, 2012

RIP - Stanford R. Ovshinsky

From Wikipedia:
Stanford R. Ovshinsky
Stanford R. Ovshinsky (born November 24, 1922, in Akron, Ohio and died October 17, 2012) was an American inventor and scientist who had been granted well over 400 patents over the last fifty years, mostly in the areas of energy or information. Many of his inventions have had wide ranging applications. Among the most prominent are: an environmentally friendly nickel-metal hydride battery, which has been widely used in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and electric and hybrid cars; continuous web multi-junction flexible thin-film solar energy laminates and panels; flat screen liquid crystal displays; rewritable CD and DVD computer memories; hydrogen fuel cells; and nonvolatile phase-change electronic memories. Ovshinsky opened the scientific field of amorphous and disordered materials in the course of his research in the 1940s and 50s in neurophysiology, neural disease, the nature of intelligence in mammals and machines, and cybernetics. Amorphous silicon semiconductors have become the basis of many technologies and industries. Ovshinsky is also distinguished in being self-taught, without formal college or graduate training. Throughout his life, his love for science and his social convictions were the primary engines for his inventive work.
Someone who's work was everywhere but you never heard of him. An American genius. Posted by DaveH at October 18, 2012 1:37 PM
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?