Accession 22-097

Innovative Lives: Lonnie Johnson, February 2, 2017 - Dr. Lonnie Johnson is best known for his wildly popular invention, the Super Soaker water gun, and for his work on high-performance Nerf dart guns. However, he has devoted his life to solving some of the world's most complex technological problems, and has received more than 100 patents, many of which are related to clean energy.

Innovative Lives: A Dialogue on Healthcare Innovations (Tiffany Kelley, Anna Young, Susannah Fox), March 16, 2017 - Although medicine has experienced remarkable technological advances in recent years, patients face rising costs and feel evermore alienated from caregivers. This program featured a conversation with innovative problem solvers who are working to bridge the gaps in healthcare. Speakers included Tiffany Kelley, founder, Nightingale Apps; Anna Young, co-founder and CEO, MakerHealth; Moderator: Susannah Fox, former Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Innovative Lives: Bob Pittman, November 16, 2017 - Having started his media career as a radio announcer at age 15, Bob Pittman played a leading role in creating MTV while still in his 20s and then had a career as CEO of MTV Networks, AOL Networks, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Century 21 Real Estate, and Time Warner Enterprises. Currently the Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Pittman has continually revolutionized how music and media are recorded, transmitted, and enjoyed by billions of people worldwide.

Innovative Lives: The Genius of Play (Vikas Gupta, James McLurkin, and Jeri Robinson), April 25, 2018 - What does play have to do with invention and creativity? Vikas Gupta, James McLurkin, and Jeri Robinson prove that playful tinkering, creative problem solving, and lots of fun can lead to powerful change, profitable businesses, and impactful learning opportunities.

Innovative Lives: Andy Hildebrand, April 19, 2018 - Andy Hildebrand is the person behind Auto-Tune, a controversial yet globally adopted digital technology that corrects a singer's pitch to make it in tune, in real time - revolutionizing vocal recording and performance. With a PhD in electrical engineering, Dr. Hildebrand's career ranged from working as a geophysicist at Exxon to co-founding Landmark Graphics to starting Antares Audio Technologies where he developed Auto-Tune.

Innovative Lives: Kareem Abdul Jabbar, February 8, 2018 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball legend, U.S. Cultural Ambassador, and bestselling author shares about his interest in innovation, the contribution of Black inventors in American history, and how to encourage youth to participate in technology and science to make a difference in the world.

Innovative Lives: Susan Kare, May 8, 2018 - Graphic designer Susan Kare has been called the "the Betsy Ross of the personal computer," the "Queen of Look and Feel," the "Matisse of computer icons," and the "mother of the Mac trash can." Kare is best known for designing the distinctive icons, typefaces, and other graphic elements that gave the Apple Macintosh its characteristic - and widely emulated - look and feel. Since then, Kare has spent the last three decades designing user interface elements for many of the leading software and Internet firms. If you have clicked on an icon to save a file or tapped your smart phone screen to launch a mobile app, then you have benefited from Kare's designs.

Innovative Lives: The Pioneers of Spacewar!, November 29, 2018 - Spacewar was created on a DEC PDP-1 at MIT in late 1961 and in early 1962, quickly spread across the early "hacker" community, and then was distributed as pre-loaded in PDP core memory. The world has not been the same since. Spacewar proved wildly popular among the small programming community of the 1960s and inspired arcade and home video games in the 1970s and 1980s. Its attention to detail, challenge of gameplay, and inspired use of limited memory and computing power continues to impress. The Smithsonian brought together the original group of contributors (Dan Edwards, Martin Graetz, Steven Piner, Steve Russell, Peter Samson, Robert Saunders, and Wayne Wiitanen) together for the first time since the 1960s to explore inspirations for the game, discuss challenges encountered while bringing it to fruition, and reflect upon the growth of computer games and the transformation of interactive technology over the past 60 years.

Innovative Lives: James West and Ellington West, March 6, 2019 - An inventor with over 60 U.S. patents, Jim West started his career at Bell Laboratories, where he worked his way up from technical aide to a high-ranking Bell Labs Fellow. Since retiring from Bell Labs in 2001, Jim has continued to carry out research and invent new technologies for sound recording and transmission at Johns Hopkins University. A well-known advocate for invention education and opportunities for minority youth, Jim has received numerous medals and prizes, including induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1999. Ellington West leads Sonavi Labs, a company developing modern medical products that analyze body sounds to diagnose disease.

Innovative Lives: Kathryn D. Sullivan, December 4, 2019 - Kathryn D. Sullivan, a former astronaut and the first American woman to walk in space. Sullivan and other astronauts, engineers, and scientists launched, rescued, repaired, and maintained Hubble, the most productive observatory ever built.

Innovative Lives: Adaptive Skateboarding, WCMX, and Inventing Your Own Path, February 5, 2020 - Adaptive Skateboarding, WCMX, and Inventing Your Own Path featured adaptive skaters Oscar Loreto, Jr. and Dan Mancina, and WCMX (Wheelchair Motocross) icon Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham. Together, through personal stories and conversation, these inspiring figures explored how innovation drives accessibility and the critical role of diversity, adaptability, and inclusion in skate and wheelchair motocross culture. Each of these incredible athletes uses creativity and invention to overcome tremendous obstacles.

Innovative Lives: Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller and Polly Palmer Smith, March 4, 2020 - Jogbra inventors Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, and Polly Smith features the three 2020 National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees who created the very first commercial sports bra. Together, through personal stories and conversation, these inventors will explore how "a revolutionary garment that has enabled women's participation in athletic activities and advanced women's health and well-being" was invented and why it changed sports forever.

Patents on Life: Diamond v. Chakrabarty at 40 (Ananda Chakrabary, Dan Charles, Dan Kevles, Jennie Schmidt, Sean O'Connor), June 17, 2020 - In June 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Diamond v. Chakrabarty authorized the first patent on an intentionally genetically modified organism and concluded that patents may be granted for "anything under the sun that is made by man." The decision contributed to the rise of the modern biotechnology industry and reshaped the agriculture industry. Less well known, the Plant Protection Act of 1930 had previously allowed intellectual property protection for selectively bred and cloned plants. On the 40th anniversary of Diamond v. Chakrabarty and the 90th anniversary of the Plant Protection Act, the panel discussed breakthroughs in agricultural biotechnology and explored the impacts - economic and environmental - of these two major historical turning points.

New Perspectives Symposium: Black Inventors and Innovators, November 16-20, 2020 - The symposium brought together an interdisciplinary group of inventors, entrepreneurs, and scholars to examine Black invention and innovation in the United States. The webinar series revisited themes from a 1996 Lemelson Center workshop on technology and the African American experience. Moderated panel discussions gave participants an opportunity to hear directly from working Black inventors, as well as from historians, economists, and policy studies professionals producing pathbreaking scholarship on Black innovators past and present. Speakers included Andre Brock; Yolanda L. Comedy; Lisa D. Cook; Rayvon Fouche; Tyrone Grandison; James Holly, Jr.; Shontavia Johnson; Cathleen S. Lewis; Charlton McIlwain; Tahira Reid Smith; Amy E. Slaton; and Kara W. Swanson.

25th Year Anniversary Innovative Lives, January 13, 2021 - 25th Year Anniversary Innovative Lives panel discussion with inventor alumni from past Innovative Lives programs explored the ways in which inventing within constraints can often be the best pathway to solutions. Speakers included Lonnie Johnson, Tiffany Kelley, and Mike Augspurger.

Innovative Lives: Jessica O. Matthews, February 10, 2021 - Jessica O. Matthews', Nigerian-American inventor, work is at the intersection of disruptive technology, renewable energy, and human behavior. She is the founder of Uncharted Power. Matthews shared stories about her background, inspirations, and inventions leading to 12 patents, starting with her first invention at the age of 19.

Innovative Lives: Marilyn Hamilton, April 14, 2021 - Marilyn Hamilton, co-inventor of the Quickie wheelchair, spoke with National Museum of American History (NMAH) curator Katherine Ott about her life as an athlete and inventor. After a hang-gliding accident in 1978, Marilyn Hamilton worked with two friends to invent a lightweight, easy-to-maneuver wheelchair by adapting hang glider materials. They named it Quickie, and Hamilton used it to win wheelchair tennis championships. She co-founded Motion Designs to manufacture the wheelchairs, still sold today.

Innovative Lives: Sarah Will and Mike Schultz, May 12, 2021 - Sarah Will, Paralympic skier and accessibility advocate, and Mike Schultz, inventor of the Moto Knee and Versa Foot, joined National Museum of American History sports curator Jane Rogers for an online conversation about their respective careers and overlapping interests in advocacy for accessible sports, and the history of and ongoing technology innovations in adaptive skiing and snowboarding.

New Perspectives Symposium: Immigrant Inventors, November 1-3, 2021 - A three-day webinar series exploring the history, impact, and contemporary experiences of foreign-born inventors in the United States. The speakers - historians, economists, policymakers, and immigrant inventors - examined the factors that have made the United States an attractive destination for aspiring inventors and the attitudes and mindsets that have driven their success. Speakers include Ashok Gadgil; Ayah Bdeir; Dany Behar; Petra Moser; Ruth Ellen Wasem; and William Kerr. Also considered were how foreign-born inventors have been central to historical and contemporary policy debates concerning immigration, innovation, American competitiveness, and national security.

Innovative Lives: Nathaniel Mathis, February 9, 2022 - Nathaniel "The Bush Doctor" Mathis, an inventor, barber-stylist, and winner of international hair styling competitions. Maryland-based Mathis popularized Afros and Corn rows, hair styles that are synonymous with Black identity and empowerment. He also patented several useful tools for barbers, including a specialized apron and utility shelf.

Innovative Lives: Kavita Shukla, March 9, 2022 - Shukla, founder and CEO of the FRESHGLOW Co. and the inventor of FreshPaper holds four patents, numerous awards, and her story of simple beginnings, belief, and empowerment was the subject of a short film by Hollywood director Bryce Dallas Howard.

Innovative Lives: Warren Shadd, April 13, 2022 - Warren Shadd, the first African American piano manufacturer, who is an inventor and CEO of Washington, DC-based SHADD Pianos and Keyboards. Shadd is a second-generation piano technician and third generation musician, who has performed and toured worldwide as a jazz drummer. Recently, Warren has been developing augmentations for the SHADD piano to assist individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities including those on the autistic spectrum, deaf/hard of hearing, and blind/hard of seeing.

Innovative Lives: Martine Rothblatt, May 15, 2022 - Program featured Dr. Martine Rothblatt, Founder, Chairperson, and CEO of United Therapeutics based in Silver Spring, Maryland. United Therapeutics is the first publicly traded biotech or pharmaceutical company to take the form of a public benefit corporation. Their purpose is "to provide a brighter future for patients through (a) the development of novel pharmaceutical therapies; and (b) technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs." Not only is Dr. Rothblatt a co inventor on eight of the company's patents, she also previously created the satellite radio company SiriusXM.

Inventive Minds Exhibit - Final videos - Short gallery videos for the Inventive Minds exhibit.