The biophysicist who earned the nickname "Queen of the Sun" for her inventions: Who is Mária Telkes?

Mária Telkes was born on December 12, 1900 in Budapest, Hungary. She was born to her mother Aladar and father, Mária Laban de Telkes. Coming from a Jewish family, Telkes became interested in science as a child. Telkes, who attended primary and high school in Budapest, turned her attention to solar energy during her high school years. Later she studied at Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest Technical University) and graduated in 1920 with a bachelor's degree in physical chemistry. Then, she left in 1924 with a doctorate degree.

Moving to the United States in 1924, Telkes' life suddenly changed when she visited her cousin who was working in Cleveland. Here she was hired at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to study the energy produced by living organisms, she. While working, Telkes did under the leadership of surgeon George Washington Crile, invented a photoelectric mechanism that could record brain waves. Also, she and Crile teamed up to write a book called "The Phenomenon of Life".

Telkes then went to work as a physicist at the Westinghouse manufacturing company. She worked on developing metal alloys for thermocouples, ie thermoelectric thermometers, to convert heat into electricity. Writing a letter to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about working in the new solar program, Telkes was hired in 1939 and remained there for long times.

During World War II, the United States government came to the attention of Telkes' expertise and she hired Telkes as a civilian consultant to the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). Here she worked on a solar-powered desalination machine and completed a prototype of the machine in 1942 she. This invention became one of Telkes' most notable inventions, as it helped warring and frontline soldiers access clean water in difficult situations and helped solve water problems in the US Virgin Islands. However, its initial deployment had to be delayed until the end of the war, as professor Hoyt C. Hottel repeatedly renegotiated the machine's production contracts.

Telkes named thermal energy storage as the most critical issue facing designers of a solar-heated workable home. One of her specialties has been phase change materials that absorb or release heat as they transition from solid to liquid. She considered using phase-changing materials such as molten salts to store thermal energy in active heating systems. One of the materials he chose was Glauber's salt, or sodium sulfate.

Professor Hottel, who is head of the solar fund at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), initially supported Telkes' approach. Additionally, Dr. Telkes' contribution could make a big difference in the outcome of our project, he conveyed. However, according to Telkes, he was both less interested in the solar field and more skeptical. Telkes was a strong believer in solar energy, like Godfrey Lowell Cabot, the project's financier. There were personality clashes between Hottel and Telkes on these issues. Also in 1945 she was awarded the OSRD Certificate of Merit for the Desalination Unit.

In 1946 the group tried to use Glauber salt in the design of their second solar house. Hottel and others would hold Telkes responsible for any problems with the material. Despite the every support, Telkes was reassigned to the metallurgical department where she continued her work on thermocouples. Although she was not part of the MIT solar fund, Cabot, the project's financier, wanted her back and encouraged her to continue working on this problem independently.

Returning to MIT in 1948 after the war ended, Telkes began designing the Dover Sun House, America's first fully solar house. The project was funded by philanthropist and sculptor Amelia Peabody and worked with architect Eleanor Raymond. The project was designed to "melt in the sun to trap heat and release it as it cools and hardens." The project began to work in a way that heats the air inside the glass with the sunlight passing through the glass windows. This heated air then moved from one sheet of metal to another air gap. From there, the fans took the air into a storage chamber filled with salt (sodium sulfate). These chambers were between the walls, and the salt warmed the house as it cooled.

For the first two years the project was a success, during which time it received tremendous publicity and attracted crowds of visitors. Popular Science magazine referred to Telkes as a scientifically more important invention than the atomic bomb. In its third year, problems arose with Glauber's salt. In the project, it was separated into liquid and solid layers, so the containers rusted and started leaking. The owners of the house where the project is located removed the solar energy system from their home and replaced it in an oil furnace. In 1952, she succeeded to be the first recipient of the “Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award”, which was given for the first time to women working in the field of engineering.

In 1953, MIT Dean of Science George Russell Harrison requested a review of solar funding at MIT because of concerns about the lack of productivity. In the resulting report, Harrison, who tended to support Hottel's views, humiliated both Cabot and Telkes. So Telkes was fired by MIT in 1953.

In 1953, Telkes moved to New York University's School of Engineering, continuing her research in solar energy. Telkes wanted to develop a solar-powered oven to heat things for people without technology around the world, and received a large grant from the Ford Foundation for the project. There were two main criteria for this project. First, the oven temperature had to be as high as 350° Fahrenheit (175° Celsius) and second, it had to be easy to use.

Telkes spent several years in the industry, initially working as a solar director for the Curtiss-Wright Company. She then continued to work at Cryo-Therm for two years on materials for use in extreme conditions such as space. This work also helped develop materials for the Apollo mission and the Polaris missiles. She then continued working for six years as director of solar energy at Melpar, Inc. she.

In 1964, Telkes spoke at the first International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists in New York. In 1969, Telkes joined the Energy Conversion Institute at the University of Delaware, where she began work on her electricity-generating photovoltaic cells and her second home, which she named "Solar One", which was entirely solar powered. In addition, she started working on an air conditioner that stores cold air overnight for use the next day. In 1971 Telkes was involved in building the first house that produced both heat and electricity from the sun. In 1977, she won the "Charles Greeley Abbot Award" from the American Solar Energy Association and the "awesome achievement award" from the National Academy of Sciences Building Research Advisory Board she.

Retiring in 1978, Telkes continued to advise the University of Delaware and many other companies in the field of solar energy. In 1981, she distinguished herself and helped build the US Department of Energy's first all-solar home, Carlisle House in Massachusetts.

Telkes died in 1995, on December 2, 1995, during her first visit to Budapest, the land of her birth, in 70 years. The asteroid 390743 Telkesmária was named in her honor. She was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2012, proving her success. On December 12, 2022, Telkes' work was accepted as a "Doodle" on Google. Telkes' articles are in the Design and the Arts Special Collections collections at the Arizona State University Library in Arizona. She was the subject of the documentary film "The Sun Queen", which was first broadcast on the TV show "American Experience" on April 4, 2023. Telkes, who has 20 patents and spent her life trying to prove that the sun is the cleanest and healthiest source, continues to shed light on those who come after her with her works and designs.