While there are many significant inventions by people with Iowa roots, there are at least two Iowans whose inventions and discoveries led to the prestigious Nobel Prize. These inventors and their work may not be well known to the general public, but their work clearly was special.
Robert A. Millikan was born in 1868 in Illinois but moved to Iowa in 1875 and graduated from Maquoketa High School. He received a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College (Ohio) in 1891 and a doctorate in physics from Columbia University in 1895. Millikan is the named inventor on U.S. Patent No. 1,764,273 (issued in 1930) for an electric power transmitting system; U.S. Patent No. 1,784,302 (issued in 1930) for a process for conditioning electric switches; U.S. Patent No. 1,784,303 (issued in 1930) for an alternating power current interrupter; and U.S. Patent No. 1,996,304 (issued in 1935) for an electric switch. He also helped establish the California Institute of Technology as a leading research institution under his leadership of the university's governing body from 1921 to 1945. In addition to his patented inventions and contributions to academia, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for his work on the photoelectric effect and for his measurement of the elementary electric charge. The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation, such as ultraviolet light. This phenomenon allows inferences to be made about the properties of atoms, molecules, and solids. The elementary charge is the electric charge of a proton, or the magnitude of the negative electric charge of an electron. The elementary charge is one of seven fundamental physical constants. Millikan first measured the elementary charge in 1909 using an oil drop experiment at the University of Chicago, at a time when the existence of subatomic particles was not universally accepted.
Thomas R. Cech was born in 1947 in Chicago, IL and grew up in Iowa City, IA. He received a bachelor's degree from Grinnell College in 1970, and a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. Cech began teaching chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado in 1978. He served as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Maryland) from 2000-2008, then returned to Colorado to become the first director of the BioFrontiers Institute until 2020. Cech is a named inventor or co-inventor on at least 12 U.S. patents relating generally to biotechnology. His 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for his research and discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. His primary research relates to the process of transcription in the nucleus of cells, such as how the genetic code of DNA is transcribed into RNA. He also conducts research on telomeres, which protects the ends of chromosomes. Cech has received numerous awards for his work.
The impressive careers of these Iowans, and the contributions all other significant inventors should be highlighted in STEM classes throughout Iowa, to encourage the next generation of inventors, scientists, engineers, chemists, biologists, physicists, medical professionals, and technology experts who may change the world. MVS, with our focus on intellectual property law since 1924, has had the privilege of working with many of these leaders of industry and technology who have improved the lives of humankind for 100 years.
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