Women Inventors of 1990s Rice

Happy Women's History Month! March has a number of interesting national days and dedications, but women's history is among the most prominent, and perhaps even important.

This blog celebrates some of the leading women in Rice's early(-ish*) history of patents and inventors. Rice's first surge in patenting university research/inventions took place in the 1990s. While there is definitely a direct relationship to the work of Dr. Smalley, several women made their own significant contributions. 

First, Dr. Alemka Kisic, formerly of the Biosciences department. She is the first woman inventor credited on a Rice-assigned patent, in 1990. She, along with three others, invented US 4,897,475: Process for synthesis of 5α-cholest-8(14)-en-3/β-ol-15-one and other 15-oxygenated sterols. 

Molecular diagrams from US Patent 4,897,475

Dr. Kisic was even more influential outside her role as inventor. Rice annually awards the Dr. Alemka Kisic Distinguished Staff Service Award from the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology "in recognition of exceptional leadership and devoted service" to two department members. 

Dr. Linda Torczon is the second woman on a Rice-assigned patent. She and three others invented US 5,249,295: Digital computer register allocation and code spilling using interference graph coloring.

Process flowchart from US Patent 5,249,295

In addition, Dr. Torczon earned all three of her degrees from Rice during the 1980s, and has been a part of the computer science department since 1985. Dr. Torczon's impressive dedication and loyalty to Rice computer science is paired with her outreach efforts focused on increasing the representation and presence of women and underrepresented minorities in science, especially computer sciences.  

The third woman credited on a Rice-owned patent is Dr. Laura Suggs, who worked on a Rice-owned patent while studying for her Ph.D. in chemical engineering, which was awarded in 1998. She was the lead inventor on US 5,644,005: Method of making poly(propylene fumarate-coethylene oxide). 

Molecular diagrams from US Patent 5,644,005

Presently, Dr. Suggs holds UT's biomedical engineering department's Zarrow Centennial Professorship in Engineering. She is a credited inventor on other patents, such as US 6,355,755, granted in 2002.

The last female inventor on a Rice-owned patent from the 1990s is Dr. Yildiz Bayazitoglu, lead inventor of US 5,887,018: Longitudinal electromagnetic levitator. 

Schematic representation of magnetic flux density from US Patent 5,887,018

Dr. Bayazitoglu was the inventor on an earlier patent, US 5,527,136: Mono-tripod platform, but it is assigned to the Halliburton Company. She also is credited as an inventor on two later patents issued to Rice, US 7,323,136 and US 8,034,134, which can be found in the Digital Scholarship Archive patent repository. 

She is still Rice's Harry S. Cameron Professor in Mechanical Engineering.

Women's History Month: Valiant Women of the Vote -- Fannie Lou Hamer

Following the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, many women remained unable to exercise their right to vote due to systemic racism, voter suppression, and discriminatory laws and practices. Community organizer Fannie Lou Hamer’s work with both voting rights and the Freedom Farm Cooperative highlighted this continued fight for a more equitable society. 

 

In 1962, Hamer led seventeen volunteers to a local courthouse to register to vote. After being denied the vote on the grounds of a discriminatory literacy test, Hamer was fired by her employer and evicted from her home. Already involved in the Civil Rights Movement through her work with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Hamer’s experience drove her to advocate further for voting rights for African Americans in the South. In 1964, she helped organize Freedom Summer, a volunteer campaign to register Black voters in Mississippi. 

 

In addition to the vote, Hamer saw economics as a path towards racial equality. In 1968, she started a program called the “pig bank,” which provided pigs to Black farmers. This was the precursor to Hamer’s Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC). She purchased 640 acres to allow African American families to collectively own and farm land. In addition to 200 units of housing, the cooperative also included businesses and services such as a garment factory, coop store, and pre-school Head Start program. At its peak, the cooperative was one of the largest employers in Sunflower County, Mississippi. 

 

Learn more about Fannie Lou Hamer’s work and legacy: http://bit.ly/3bYoDJQ 

#WomensHistoryMonth #ValiantWomenOfTheVote

Women's History Month: Valiant Women of the Vote -- Ellen Ochoa

In the century since the 19th Amendment was ratified, the stories of suffragists continue to inspire generations of women trailblazers. Inventor and astronaut Ellen Ochoa carried this legacy with her to the final frontier – space! 

 

An engineer, Ochoa holds several patents in the field of optical systems for information processing. Her inventions include a system that detects defects in a repeating pattern, an object recognition method, and a method for image noise removal. At @NASA, she led a group researching the use of optical technology for automated space exploration. 

 

In 1993, Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go into space when serving on the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery, a mission tasked with studying the Earth’s ozone layer. On a subsequent mission six years later, Ochoa brought an original gold, white, and purple suffrage banner into orbit. Ochoa has been in space four times and logged over 1,000 space hours. She went on to serve as the 11th director of the Johnson Space Center and is a recipient of NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal. 

 

Learn more about Ochoa’s historic flight from the @National Archives: http://bit.ly/3rUmQe5 #WomensHistoryMonth #ValiantWomenOfTheVote

Women's History Month: Valiant Women of the Vote -- Zitkála-Šá

 

Writer, musician, and activist Zitkála-Šá showed the world how the arts can both preserve traditions and influence change. 

 

A member of the Yankton Dakota Sioux, Zitkála-Šá was born in South Dakota in 1876. She first learned to play the violin at a residential school, and discovered a passion for the instrument. Alarmed by the pressures Indigenous people faced to assimilate, she became an advocate for Indigenous people retaining their cultural practices and traditions. Zitkála-Šá used her music and her writing to disavow damaging stereotypes white Americans held about Native Americans. Her books, including “American Indian Stories” and “Old Indian Legends,” were some of the first texts to bring traditional Indigenous stories to a white English-speaking audience. Zitkála-Šá also wrote the libretto and contributed to the music for “The Sun Dance,” a groundbreaking opera that remains one of the few operas dealing exclusively with Native American themes. 

 

Zitkála-Šá advocated for full citizenship for Indigenous people in the United States, including the right to vote. In addition to her writings, she lectured across the country to promote tribal identities and encourage civic participation. Although the federal Indian Citizenship Act passed in 1924, the power to grant suffrage to Native Americans still rested with the states. In response, Zitkála-Šá and her husband founded the National Council of American Indians, and she served as the organization’s president until her death in 1938, encouraging those who were able to exercise the right to vote to participate in ways that benefitted all Indigenous people. 

 

Learn more about Zitkála-Šá’s writings, music, and legacy in health care and education: http://bit.ly/3vckucB 

#WomensHistoryMonth #ValiantWomenOfTheVote

Wednesday, March 24: Investing in innovation

Don't miss the next free, online installment of the 2021 Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium (WES), “Investing in innovation,” coming next Wednesday, March 24, from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET. Tune in to learn about funding opportunities for women entrepreneurs. Register for this program.

Attendees will learn about:

• Small business loans to help launch your vision
• Understanding crowdfunding
• Other investment funding sources for aspiring entrepreneurs

Moderator

Hope Shimabuku, Director of the USPTO's Texas Regional Office

Guests

• Natalie Madeira Cofield, Assistant Administrator, Office of Women’s Business Ownership, Small Business Administration
• Elizabeth Galbut, Founding Partner, SoGal Ventures
• Ruth Hedges, CEO, Crowdfundingroadmap Inc
• Corinne Hodges, CEO, Association of Women’s Business Centers

The WES will offer engaging, expert panels on Wednesdays throughout Women’s History Month. Check the WES program page for updates.

The WES is presented by the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Outreach. For questions or assistance, please contact WES@USPTO.GOV. 

Women's History Month -- Wine & IP

On March 24, the USPTO invites you to celebrate the successes of women working at the intersection of wine and #IP. 

Learn more about their efforts, often behind the scenes, to keep the wine world swirling. 

Register for free: http://bit.ly/30wNBJO #WineIP #WomensHistoryMonth

Women's History Month -- Valiant Women of the Vote: Bellie Bly

Investigative journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, better known by her pseudonym Nellie Bly, held two U.S. patents in manufacturing. 

 

Following her lauded expose on brutality and neglect in late nineteenth-century mental health asylums and her record-breaking seventy-two day trip around the world, Bly had a second career as an industrialist. With her husband’s health failing, Bly took over as the head of Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. around the turn of the twentieth century. Bly invented and received patents for a novel milk can (patent number 697,553) and a stacking garbage can (patent number 703,711). Although the company’s financial issues led to its eventual bankruptcy, Iron Clad’s lasting legacy can be seen in the 55-gallon oil drum still used widely today, modeled on a popular steel barrel manufactured during Bly’s tenure. 

 

Bly eventually returned to journalism. She covered the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Procession, the first suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. and the first large, organized political march on the nation’s capital. In her article, bluntly entitled “Suffragists Are Men’s Superiors,” she predicted correctly that it would be 1920 before women were able to vote in national elections. 

 

Learn more about Nellie Bly and her interdisciplinary career: http://bit.ly/30zOv8h #WomensHistoryMonth #ValiantWomenOfTheVote

 

 

U.S. Patent no. 697,553

Title: Milk Can

Patented: April 15, 1902

 

U.S. Patent no. 703,711

Title: Garbage or Refuse Can

Patented: July 1, 1902

Women's History Month -- Juliette Gordon Low

Juliette Gordon Low’s trefoil design has become an American classic. More than a century after she received her patent, Girl Scouts proudly wear their trefoil badges as symbols of a commitment to the organization and mission.

 

Learn more about Low in our latest installment of

#JourneysOfInnovation: http://bit.ly/3kAE8u3 #WomensHistoryMonth #ExpandingAmericanInnovation

 

 

U.S. Patent no. D45,234

Title: Badge

Patented February 10, 1914

Women's History Month Series: Valiant Women of the Vote -- Maggie Lena Walker

The first African American woman to found a bank in the United States, businesswoman and community leader Maggie Lena Walker facilitated success for entrepreneurs in her city of Richmond, Virginia. 

 

In 1889, Walker was elected to a leadership position with the Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal association she had been involved with since she was a teenager. Her guidance transformed the Order, which had been on the brink of financial failure, into a powerful benefit society for African Americans that encouraged education, economic growth, and community advancement. To allow for direct communications from the Order to the public, Walker established a newspaper, the St. Luke Herald. And in 1903, she founded St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and served as its first president. The bank employed Black women and allowed the emerging Black middle class in Richmond economic opportunities previously denied to them in the era of Jim Crow. 

 

In addition to raising funds for education and health programs in Richmond, Walker viewed civic participation as key in helping women and African Americans obtain economic and social independence. She served as the vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP, and following the passage of the 19th Amendment, she helped to organize voter registration drives for women in her community. 

 

Learn more about Walker’s life and accomplishments from

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

: http://bit.ly/3spSGiU #WomensHistoryMonth #WHM #ValiantWomenOfTheVote

Women's History Month -- Valiant Women of the Vote: Jovita Idár

In the early twentieth century, journalist and activist Jovita Idár wrote of the modern woman, “Science, industry, the workshop and even the home demand her best aptitudes, her perseverance and consistency in work, and her influence and assistance for all that is progress and advancement for humanity.” She founded La Liga Femenil Mexicanista to promote education and economic advancement for Mexican-American women. 

 

Born in Laredo, Texas in 1885, Idár experienced racism and danger throughout her life. The Mexican-American community in Texas frequently faced violence, and Idár’s family was active in the civil rights movement. She began writing articles for the newspaper her father founded, La Crónica, encouraging readers on both sides of the border to fight against racial and economic injustice. Idár supported the women’s suffrage movement, and encouraged women to vote through her writing. 

 

Understanding the role education had in economic and political success, Idár earned a teaching certificate in 1903. When she founded the La Liga Femenil Mexicanista (the League of Mexican Women), one of the first goals of the organization was to provide educational opportunities for Mexican American children. Idár wrote for the newspaper El Progreso until the newspaper was shut down by the Texas Rangers. She then took over the business of running La Crónica after her father’s death. 

 

Jovita Idár believed that “when you educate a woman, you educate a family.” She continued to advocate for education and equality for Mexican-Americans throughout her life.

#WomensHistoryMonth #ValiantWomenOfTheVote #WomenEntrepreneurs

Women's History Month -- Valiant Women of the Vote: Blanche Ames

Artist, activist, and inventor Blanche Ames, well-known for her drawings and research in botanicals, held patents in three different fields of innovation.

Ames had a talent and a passion for art in a variety of mediums. In the early 1910s, she illustrated a number of her husband’s publications on botany, including pen and ink drawings of orchids. Around the same time, Ames and her brother developed an extensive color notation system that allowed artists to map out the most realistic colors for their paintings. The Ames siblings received U.S. patent number 1,612,791 in 1927.

Blanche Ames also used her artistic talents to promote the cause of women’s suffrage through a number of political cartoons. Born into a political family, Ames valued civic participation throughout her life. She lobbied extensively for women’s suffrage in her home state of Massachusetts, and was involved in a number of initiatives surrounding women’s health.

Ames also holds patents for an antipollution toilet design and a propeller snare that could trip up enemy planes, which she designed during World War II. 

Learn more about Ames: http://bit.ly/3sNDtbw #WomensHistoryMonth #ValiantWomenOfTheVote

 

U.S. Patent no. 1,612,791

Title: System of Color Standards

Patented: January 4, 1927

U.S. Patent no. 2,374,261

Title: Propeller Snare

Patented: April 24, 1945

 

U.S. Patent no. 3,488,780

Title: Apparatus for Antipollution of Sewage Systems at Toilet Source

Patented: January 13, 1970

 

Patents source from: https://brendapolendey.wordpress.com/cultural-research/4-technology-blanche-ames-inventions/