[Image above] Hungarian–American chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes helped advance the field of solar technology. Credit: PBS
Since the first Women’s History Month in 1987, the number of women participating in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields expanded significantly. As of 2021, about a third of people employed in STEM occupations are women, as noted in the latest version of the biannual “Diversity and STEM: Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities” report by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
While this figure is encouraging, “women remain a small share of degree earners in fields like engineering and computing,” the cover story of the March 2024 issue of Tech Briefs states. Thus, “More work needs to be done” to achieve gender equity, the story concludes.
To support this effort, the SAE Media Group, which publishes Tech Briefs, launched a new annual awards program called Women in Engineering: Rising Star Awards. The program, which will accept nominations starting May 1, aims to recognize women who are enhancing the engineering profession through contributions to industry and society in six categories: aerospace defense, automotive/transportation, electronics, manufacturing, medical, and sustainability.
Regarding the last category, PBS recently aired a special on chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes, who championed sustainability through her work on solar technology. Dubbed the Sun Queen in the press, Telkes’ fervent belief in the power of the sun led to the construction of the first-ever modern residence heated with solar energy, seen in the video below.
Though Telkes’ work was not without controversy—her infamous clashes with Hoyt Hottel, project lead for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Research Committee on Solar Energy, are well documented—she ultimately proved the validity of her ideas through perseverance and dedication.
Today, the active heating system designed by Telkes has largely faded away as a technological dead-end. But for Telkes, perfection was never the point.
“Each new house is another experimental stepping stone toward the use of the sun as a fuel resource,” she explained in 1950, as reported in a PBS article.
Watch “The Sun Queen” documentary by PBS online at this link.