Role Models in Science and Technology

Our lives today are dependent upon a bewildering amount of technology, much of which we take for granted. Indeed, some of that technology is so pervasive that we forget it even is technology. Working in the background, balancing imagination and intuition, the streaks of creativity from influential figures have transformed the world we live in. Beyond Newton, Edison, and Einstein, here are a few others that have had a huge impact. Tesla, Feynman, Oppenheimer, Von Braun, Turing, Nash, and Jobs are role models in mathematics, science, and engineering that have transformed the way we live our lives.

Nikolai Tesla was born in Yugoslavia in 1856 and is regarded as the one of the greatest scientists in the history of technology. His inventions are the backbone of modern power and communication systems. He developed the induction motor, the fluorescent lightbulb and created alternating current. He proved AC current to be safe by passing it through his body while lighting a lamp.

He is credited as the greatest electrical engineer and a great rival of Edison. He worked with George Westinghouse to develop early lighting systems and demonstrated a radio transmitter before Marconi. Tesla had a keen memory and an ability to visualize and construct complicated objects in his mind. This allowed him to visualize intricate drawings and build prototypes in his imagination. His proudest achievement was the man-made lighting and he dreamed of a world filled with electric light.

Richard Feynman was born in America in 1918 and is regarded as one of the most remarkable and gifted theoretical physicists of any generation. His passion for helping non-scientists imagine the beauty and order of the universe is quite legendary. He took esoteric theories in science related to matter and energy and shaped them succinctly into tools that ordinary physicists could understand. Feynman won the Nobel prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics.

He was also a group leader on the atomic bomb project. ''The Feynman Lectures on Physics’' is an indispensable series of lectures equally useful for the novice and expert in understanding the fundamentals of physics. Feynman was heavily influenced by his father who encouraged him to ask questions in order to challenge conventional and orthodox thinking. He studied at MIT, Princeton, and worked at Cornell and CalTech among other leading institutions.

Robert Oppenheimer was born in America in 1904 and is regarded as the father of the atom bomb. He studied at Harvard, worked at Cambridge and other universities and at a young age earned a reputation as a theoretical physicist. He was selected as the scientific director of the program called the Manhattan project to build the atom bomb that unleashed the basic forces of the universe.

After the successful development of the bomb he quoted from the Gita saying "I am become death: the destroyer of worlds.” A brilliant nuclear physicist, with a comprehensive grasp of his field, Dr. Oppenheimer was also a cultivated scholar, a humanist, a linguist of eight tongues and spiritually inclined.

Wernher Von Braun was born in Germany in 1912 and is regarded as the father of the US space program. Von Braun had a great vision of the future of rockets, space stations, and spacecraft. His imaginations helped power astronauts and satellites into space on giant rockets and paved the way for today's space age.

He initially worked in Nazi Germany and after the World War II surrender moved to the United States and became in-charge of the American rocket team. His team was responsible for the Saturn rockets and the Apollo missions. Most scientists and geniuses are expected to be quirkish and quixotic but Von Braun had a strong spiritual side that kept him humble, grateful, unselfish, and strong.

Alan Turing was born in London in 1912 to parents who worked in the Indian Civil Service. He studied mathematics at Cambridge University and very quickly established his reputation as a mathematician. He worked in the fields of quantum mechanics, cryptography, and computing. While at Cambridge he developed the proof that automatic computation cannot solve all mathematical problems. Known as the Turing machine, this concept is considered the basis for the modern theory of computation. During World War II, he took up full-time work at Bletchley Park to decipher the messages encrypted by the German Enigma machine.

His team designed a machine that successfully decoded German messages and provided vital intelligence for the Allies to win the war. In 1936, Alan Turing dreamed up the principle of the modern computer – the idea of controlling its operations by means of a program of coded instructions stored in memory.

John Nash born in America in 1928 was a mathematician who focused on game theory. He studied at Princeton University and wowed his peers with game theory insights. His pioneering insights into game theory described strategies in competition whether in games or business.

His doctoral thesis led to Nash Equilibrium which suggested strategies for participants to maximize their outcomes. This would in time revolutionize the field of economics. In 1966, he received the Nobel prize in Economics for his work on game theory. A Hollywood movie “A Beautiful Mind” directed by Ron Howard on the story of John Nash won the best picture Oscar in 2002.

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, is considered the most innovative and successful business leader of our era. He lived the Silicon Valley dream and created a start-up in his parents’ garage and built it into the world’s most valuable company, changing the way people used computers. Steve valued experiential wisdom over analytic rigor and his imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical.

They were sparked by intuition, not analytic rigor. He had a very accurate sense for the pulse of people that reflected in the deep personal connections between Apple customers and their products. He will be best remembered for connecting artistry to technology and scaling computing into palm sized devices.

By: Dr Shanti Swarup