While Cleveland might not be known for its abundance of sunny days, it was the temporary home of someone who revolutionized solar energy. In 1924, Maria Telkes emmigrated from Budapest, Hungary, to the United States and got a job as a biophysicist for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation a year later.
While Telkes went on to make great scientific contributions in Cleveland, her position at the foundation was an achievement in its own right. “She was one of the first women [who] were employed at the Clinic as a researcher or a scientist,” says Amanda Mahoney, chief curator of the Dittrick Medical History Center at Case Western Reserve University.
Telkes’ passion project was solar energy. She believed solar energy to be the healthiest and cleanest fuel and she also openly criticized her fellow engineers when they dismissed solar energy’s prospects for other short-term fuels. While her opinions about solar advocacy were considered radical at the time, they ended up helping her advance her career.
“She read about some interesting work happening at MIT and wrote them,” says Mahoney. “Her letter was so interesting that they hired her.” That work was happening at the Dover Sun House, now famous for being the first house with a solar-powered heating system. Telkes also invented the solar distiller, which uses solar energy to make saltwater drinkable.
Telkes won the first-ever Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award in 1952, as well as a lifetime achievement award in 1977 from the National Academy of Sciences Building Research Advisory Board for her advancements in solar energy.
