2001 Archives

Inventing Modern America

Berkeley Lab Scientist Profiled in Book on Major American Inventors

A new book profiling 35 major American inventors includes a chapter on Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist and inventor Ashok Gadgil. "Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse" was released in December by MIT Press of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Gadgil is the inventor of UV Waterworks, a device that disinfects drinking water inexpensively and energy-efficiently using ultraviolet light. He developed the idea for this device after a cholera outbreak in 1992 in India killed 10,000 people. The technology has won a Discover magazine for technological innovation award and Popular Science's "Best of What's New" award.

"Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse" profiles thirty-five inventors who exemplify the rich technological creativity of the United States over the past century. Inventing Modern America was developed by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, whose mission is to inspire a new generation of American scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Inventing Modern America is designed to create excitement about invention through the personal stories of its inventor subjects.

Others profiled in the book include George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, Steve Wozniak of Apple Computer, and Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the mouse.

For more information on Inventing America, see:

http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/ima/

MIT Press (617) 253-3352

For UV Waterworks, see:

http://eetd.lbl.gov/IED/archive/uv/