MIT150
Encyclopedia
The MIT150 is a list published by the Boston Globe, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) in 2011, listing 150 of the most significant innovators, inventions or ideas from MIT, its alumni, faculty, and related people and organizations in the 150 year history of the institute.
The top 30 innovators and inventions on the list are:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT) in 2011, listing 150 of the most significant innovators, inventions or ideas from MIT, its alumni, faculty, and related people and organizations in the 150 year history of the institute.
The top 30 innovators and inventions on the list are:
- Tim Berners-LeeTim Berners-LeeSir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
, inventor of the World Wide WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet... - Eric LanderEric LanderEric Steven Lander is a Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , a member of the Whitehead Institute, and director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard who has devoted his career toward realizing the promise of the human genome for medicine. He is co-chair of U.S...
, team leader for sequencing one-third of the Human GenomeHuman genomeThe human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining... - William ShockleyWilliam ShockleyWilliam Bradford Shockley Jr. was an American physicist and inventor. Along with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, Shockley co-invented the transistor, for which all three were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.Shockley's attempts to commercialize a new transistor design in the 1950s...
, inventor of the solid-state transistorTransistorA transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current... - Ray TomlinsonRay TomlinsonRaymond Samuel Tomlinson is a programmer who implemented an email system in 1971 on the ARPANET. Email had been previously sent on other networks such as AUTODIN and PLATO. It was the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to the ARPAnet...
, inventor of the "@" symbol use in email addresses - Phillip A. Sharp, founder of Biogen IdecBiogen IdecBiogen Idec, Inc. is a biotechnology company specializing in drugs for neurological disorders, autoimmune disorders and cancer. The company was formed in 2003 by the merger of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen Inc. and San Diego, California-based IDEC Pharmaceuticals...
- Ken OlsenKen OlsenKenneth Harry Olsen was an American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson.-Background:...
and Harlan AndersonHarlan AndersonHarlan Anderson is an engineer and entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of Digital Equipment Corporation which at one time was the second largest computer company in the world. Other notable entities he has been associated with include Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of...
, founders of Digital Equipment Corp. - Helen GreinerHelen GreinerHelen Greiner is the co-founder of iRobot and currently CEO of CyPhyWorks.-Career:Helen Greiner holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in computer science, both from MIT...
and Colin AngleColin AngleColin Angle is co-founder, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of iRobot Corporation, maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaning robot and the PackBot military robot. He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and a Master of Science in computer science from the Massachusetts...
, founders of iRobotIRobotiRobot Corporation is an American advanced technology company founded in 1990 and incorporated in Delaware in 2000, the iRobot Corporation designs robots such as an autonomous home vacuum cleaner , the Scooba that scrubs and cleans hard floors, and military and police robots, such as the PackBot...
Corp. - Ellen Swallow RichardsEllen Swallow RichardsEllen Henrietta Swallow Richards was the foremost female industrial and environmental chemist in the United States in the 19th century, pioneering the field of home economics. Richards graduated from Westford Academy...
, nutrition expert, and the first woman admitted to MIT - Amar BoseAmar BoseAmar Gopal Bose is an Bengali American electrical engineer, sound engineer and billionaire entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of Bose Corporation...
, founder of Bose Corporation - Ivan Getting, founder of Aerospace Corp., inventor of GPS
- Salvador Luria, father of modern biologyBiologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
- Joseph JacobsonJoseph JacobsonJoseph Jacobson, a native and resident of Newton, Massachusetts, is a tenured professor and head of the Molecular Machines group at the Center for Bits and Atoms at the MIT Media Lab...
, cofounder of E InkE InkE Ink is a specific proprietary type of electronic paper manufactured by E Ink Corporation, founded in 1997 based on research started at the MIT Media Lab... - Dan Bricklin, Bob FrankstonBob FrankstonRobert M. Frankston is the co-creator with Dan Bricklin of the VisiCalc spreadsheet program and the co-founder of Software Arts, the company that developed it....
, inventors of VisiCalcVisiCalcVisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool... - Brewster KahleBrewster KahleBrewster Kahle is a computer engineer, internet entrepreneur, activist, and digital librarian.- Biography :Kahle graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and engineering, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. The...
, founder of the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive... - Daniel Lewin, Tom Leighton, co-founders of AkamaiAkamaiAkamai may refer to:* Akamai Technologies, a company that develops software for web content and application delivery** Akamai Foundation, a sponsor of the American Mathematics Competitions, founded by Akamai Technologies...
- Vannevar BushVannevar BushVannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...
, science advisor to President Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war... - Pietro BelluschiPietro BelluschiPietro Belluschi was an American architect, a leader of the Modern Movement in architecture, and was responsible for the design of over one thousand buildings....
, dean of the MIT School of Architecture and PlanningMIT School of Architecture and PlanningThe MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA... - Ron RivestRon RivestRonald Linn Rivest is a cryptographer. He is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Computer Science at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory...
, Adi ShamirAdi ShamirAdi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer. He is a co-inventor of the RSA algorithm , a co-inventor of the Feige–Fiat–Shamir identification scheme , one of the inventors of differential cryptanalysis and has made numerous contributions to the fields of cryptography and computer...
, Leonard AdlemanLeonard AdlemanLeonard Max Adleman is an American theoretical computer scientist and professor of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern California. He is known for being a co-inventor of the RSA cryptosystem in 1977, and of DNA computing...
, inventors of RSARSARSA is an algorithm for public-key cryptography that is based on the presumed difficulty of factoring large integers, the factoring problem. RSA stands for Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who first publicly described it in 1978. A user of RSA creates and then publishes the product of...
cryptography - Charles DraperCharles DraperCharles Draper was a British classical clarinetist, sometimes described as the grandfather of English clarinetists. He came from a musical family, his father and brother, having been cellists and clarinetists, respectively...
, inventor of the first intertial guidance system - Herbert KalmusHerbert KalmusHerbert Thomas Kalmus was an American scientist and engineer who played a key role in developing color motion picture film...
, Daniel Comstock, cofounders of TechnicolorTechnicolorTechnicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952... - John Dorrance, inventor of Campbell Soup
- David BaltimoreDavid BaltimoreDavid Baltimore is an American biologist, university administrator, and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology from 1997 to 2006, and is currently the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech...
, Nobel laureate - Robert WeinbergRobert WeinbergRobert Allan Weinberg is a Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at MIT and American Cancer Society Research Professor; his research is in the area of oncogenes and the genetic basis of human cancer. Weinberg is also affiliated with the Broad Institute and is a founding member of the...
, cofounder of the Whitehead InstituteWhitehead InstituteFounded in 1982, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research and teaching institution located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.... - William Thompson SedgwickWilliam Thompson SedgwickWilliam Thompson Sedgwick was a key figure in shaping public health in the United States.William T...
, founder of the Harvard School of Public HealthHarvard School of Public HealthThe Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the... - Alfred P. SloanAlfred P. SloanAlfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...
, CEO of General MotorsGeneral MotorsGeneral Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010... - William Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett Packard
- Marc RaibertMarc RaibertMarc Raibert is a former MIT professor who founded the MIT Leg Lab in the 1980s, and went on to found Boston Dynamics, a simulation and robotics company in 1992. Raibert developed the first self-balancing hopping robots, a significant step forward in robotics...
, inventor of BigDogBigDogBigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. BigDog is long, stands tall, and weighs , about the size of a small mule. It is capable of traversing... - Hugh HerrHugh HerrHugh Herr is an American rock climber, engineer and biophysicist.-Early life:The youngest of five siblings of a Mennonite family from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Hugh Herr was a prodigy rock climber: by age eight, he had scaled the face of the Mount Temple in the Canadian Rockies, and by 17 he was...
, founder of iWalk - Hoyt C. HottelHoyt C. HottelHoyt Clarke Hottel was a professor in the department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. He was an expert on energy, radiant heat transfer, fire, fuels and combustion ....
, oil industry pioneer - Robert SwansonRobert SwansonRobert Swanson was a Canadian researcher and developer, and is credited with the invention of the first five and six-chime air horns for use on locomotives. Swanson had worked as the chief engineer of a company called Victoria Lumber Manufacturing in the 1920s, when he developed a hobby for making...
, cofounder of GenentechGenentechGenentech Inc., or Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology corporation, founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. Trailing the founding of Cetus by five years, it was an important step in the evolution of the biotechnology industry...
External links
- MIT150 special from the Boston Globe