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Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Jefferson was born into a prominent Virginia planter family that had the money to provide him with a top-notch education for the time. For most of his early life, he was educated by tutors and later attended an Anglican boarding school. At age sixteen, he enrolled in the College of William and Mary as a philosophy student (which at that time included "natural philosophy" such as physics and math along with "moral philosophy"). After graduation, he practiced law, sat in multiple public offices, and oversaw the estate he inherited from his father, Monticello. While he is rumored to have invented a number of famous technologies, among them the swivel chair (which he actually acquired from an unknown inventor and made additions to), most of his inventions have not reached wide use with a few important exceptions. Most influential was the wheel cipher, the first mechanical code system, which was used widely in the United States between the years of 1922 and the beginning of WWII. Besides being an inventor, Jefferson had a large role in the development of the US patent system. He personally oversaw the granting of patents as Secretary of State, and wanted to form a system that protected the rights of the consumer as well as the inventor.

Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014)

Kwolek was born and raised in a suburb of Pittsburgh, where she spent hours with her father, a naturalist, exploring the natural world and became interested in science. She earned her degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 1946 and worked as a chemist at the DuPont Company for over forty years. Her best known invention is the synthetic fiber poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, commonly known as Kevlar, an exceptionally strong and stiff material used in bullet-proof vests. She began developing Kevlar in 1964 when her group started searching for a strong but lightweight material to use in tires during an anticipated oil shortage. Kwolek became the fourth woman added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1995 and she won several awards for her work in polymer chemistry.

Larry Page(1973-present)

Larry Page is the inventor of Google, the famous internet search engine. He was born in East Lansing, Michigan in 1973 to computer experts. His father, Carl Page, was a forerunner in computer science and artificial intelligence while his mother taught computer programming. Larry Page earned his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Michigan. He then decided to move on to Stanford University where he concentrated on computer engineering. It was at Stanford University that he met Sergey Brin, his partner in developing a search engine that listed results according to the popularity of the pages, or "Google". "Google" was named after the mathematical term "googol," which refers to the number one followed by 100 zeroes. After Page and Brin raised $1 million from family, friends, and other investors, they launched Google in 1998. Since then Google has become the world's most popular search engine. At present, Page is serving as Google's CEO and is ranked as No. 13 on "Forbes 400" list of the richest people in America in September 2013.

Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)

"Don't find fault. Find a remedy. Anybody can complain." - Henry Ford Henry Ford was born and grew up in Dearborn, Michigan where he lived on a family farm. At the age of 16, Ford decided to move off the farm and take on an apprenticeship with a machinist in Detroit. At the same time as his apprenticeship, he was studying bookkeeping and attended Goldsmith, Bryant, and Stratton Business College in Detroit. Henry Ford was an extraordinary engineer and contributed so much to the modern industrial world. He essentially created the modern automobile by applying his machine skills to create a functioning, well oiled, transportation machine. Ford was the first individual to effectively use the assembly line to mass produce automobiles and, more importantly, created an automobile that was within the economic boundaries of the average United States citizen, the Model T. He revolutionized not only the automobile industry but also how people worked, traveled, lived, and thought. His ideas and ingenuity catalyzed a massive industrial and transportation boom that continued throughout the 20th century.

Neil Armstrong (1930 - 2012)

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." An ambitious young Ohioan boy, Neil Armstrong flew his first airplane at the age of six. He then attended Purdue University where he achieved his bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering then went on to gain his master's at the University of Southern California. Armstrong began his career at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics which became a part of NASA soon after. Armstrong not only designed planes but he also flew them. The X-15 rocket he flew set speed and altitude records that have not been surpassed today. Yet, Neil Armstrong is most known today for his Apollo 11 mission where he became the first man to step on the moon.

Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898)

He was born at Charlton, near Hitchin, England, and received his early education in the neighborhood schools. His father, a mechanical engineer and inventor, owned a type foundry. In this establishment Bessemer received a mechanical training which later inspired his work and inventions. He inherited his father artistic talent and was skillful at modeling, designing, and painting. At an early age, he showed an interest in inventing things. Bessemer was mostly self-taught and exhibited extraordinary inventive skills since childhood. Bessemer is best known for devising a steel production process that inspired the Industrial Revolution. It was the first cost-efficient industrial process for the big-scale production of steel from molten pig iron by taking out impurities from pig iron using an air blast. Bessemer's process still continues to inspire the production of modern steel.

Eli Whitney (1765 - 1825)

He was born in 1765 to a farmer in Massachusetts. Eli Whitney is commonly known for his invention of the Cotton Gin in 1794.The machine combined a system of hooks, wires and mesh that would "sift" the seeds out of the cotton. The cotton gin was a success, but due to poor copyright laws, Whitney had no control over farmers using his idea to make their own cotton gins. Despite the little profit he made from the cotton gin, Whitney was granted a contract to manufacture weapons for the government through mass production of interchangeable parts. Whitney's interchangeable parts method was part of the initial concept of the later-to-come assembly line. The influence Whitney had on the modern day assembly line led him to be known as "the father of American technology."

Hsue-shen,Qian (1911 - 2009)

Hsue-shen was an applied scientist who did great contributions both to the US and China. Born to after father who was a Chinese Education Minister, Hsue-shen received a great support and finished well-rounded education of engineering. After graduating from Jiaotong University, he studied aerospace engineering and math in Cal-tech, and later became professor in Cal-tech and MIT. Qian made a project named Jet Propulsion Laboratory in response to German's V-2 rocket and became a consultant to the US army air force and ranked as colonel. After being accused communist and experienced a long detention, he made it back to homeland and made the first Hydrogen bomb and rocket in China. Due to his hard work, he shortened the progress of aerospace engineering for 20 years in China and was known as the 'father of rocket'.

Sir Isaac Newton(1642-1727)

Newton spent most of his childhood growing up in Woolsthorpe. As a child, Newton lacked the attention and support of both his parents and was mostly left to study to get into college. After all his preparation, Newton finally left for Cambridge University where he ended up receiving his Bachelor's degree without honor or distinction. It wasn't until his post-graduate years did he begin to start his research into theories that would become most influential to science. Some of Newton's major contributions to science included theories in math, motion, and optics. In calculus, he developed the method of fluxions, a method used to treat changing quantities. Newton also demonstrated his theories of light and optics through a series of experiments; he proved that white light is composed of a combination of all the primary colors and prisms can be used to separate white light into the colors that it is made up of. Finally, Newton was most well-known for his three laws of motion, which can be found in his publication of Principia. These theories ultimately led to his study and research into planetary motion.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662):

Pascal grew up in Paris as a child prodigy and was taught by his father, Etienne. Etienne omitted math completely out of his son's early education because he was worried that Blaise would become too fascinated in geometry and algebra that he would not be able to focus on other subjects, such as Greek and Latin. Though, the fact his father tried to keep it from him made Blaise so interested he started to teach himself at the age of 12. At the age of 18, Pascal invented the first calculator, capable of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, in order to make his father's job as a tax collector easier. Later, he explored how atmospheric pressure is related to weight. His work earned him a SI unit Pascal (Pa). Then, in trying to invent a device that would produce more energy than it used, he accidentally invented the roulette wheel. From there, he developed the fundamental basics of probability that events did not occur randomly.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. Early on in his life, he started to struggle with the rigid European education system that did not give him much room to explore his interests. He did poorly in many subjects but was exceptional at math and physics. When he was older, he graduated high school with the Swiss Matura and went to the ETH (Swiss Federal Polytechnic School) in Zurich. Two major events in his childhood triggered his passion for science: one was a compass he found at age five, the other was a geometry book he read over and over when he was 12. After he read a children's book about electric waves, he started wondering what a light beam would look like "standing still". He dreamt about travelling at the speed of light and looking at the light beams next to him. If light was a wave, he would be able to see waves standing still. In reality, the beam would still be moving. This, along with what he learned at the ETH, led to his theory abpit the relativity of speed and time. Another important realization was Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2. According to that equation, tiny particles could be converted into massive amounts of energy, foreshadowing the development of nuclear power. After Hitler became popular in Germany, Einstein left forever and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he conducted research during his final years.

Archimedes (287 B.C. - 212 B.C.)

Archimedes was born in 287 BC. He was born and lived his life in Syracuse, Sicily. It is believed that he studied in Alexandria, Egypt with some of the other great thinkers of the time period. Archimedes developed many engineering feats during his life time but most notably the Archimedes screw. This screw was used to remove water when it would fill up in the bottom of the ship so that it would not sink. It worked by having a revolving hand turned screw shape inside of an enclosed cylinder this would bring the water to the top and could be removed from the ship. This is important because similar things are still used to this day. Although it is common place today the idea of water or gas displacement to find the volume of an irregular shape, Archimedes was actually the first to understand and conceive this idea.

William Henry Gates III (1955 - present)

Bill Gates graduated from Lakeside high school in 1973 and got into Harvard Collage in autumn 1973. In his second year in Harvard Collage, he discovered an algorithm for pancake sorting, which is the one of the answers of unsolved problems for the combinatorics class. His technique has become the fastest version to solve the problem for over thirty years. He joined Honeywell, "a company that produces a variety of commercial and consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems" , in summer 1974. A year after, when MITS Altair 8800 is released based on Intel 8080 CPU; Gates want to start up his own company so he dropped out the Harvard Collage and start to build his own company. His one of the most important contributions is creating Microsoft for developing software for other companies and to produce "broad economic opportunities" to provide everyone a computer. Infect, Microsoft's slogan was "computer for everyone". In addition, he teamed up with some other computer companies to create simple operating systems and software to make easier to operate with computer.

Bill Nye (Nov. 27, 1955 - present)

Bill was born in Washington, D.C. where he spent his childhood and attended school in the city. His parents were both WWII veterans with his father being a prisoner of war in Japan without electricity, which led him to become a sundial enthusiast. Bill studied mechanical engineering at Cornell where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He is best known for starring in the show, "Bill Nye the Science Guy" where he taught a specific topic in science each episode with comedic overtones. He also helped in the development of a small sundial used in the Mars Exploration Rover missions. Additionally, he was the vice president of the Planetary Society from 2005-2010, which conducts space science research, and is now the second Executive Director of the organization. Finally, Bill also performed in "Dancing with the Stars", but unfortunately was eliminated in the 3rd week due to a leg injury.

Eratosthenes (276 - 194 BC)

Born in Cyrene, as ancient city near present day Libya, Eratosthenes was a Greek scholar holding many titles in his lifetime, longing to understand the complexities of the entire world. He studied in Athens, at different schools of philosophy and at the Platonic Academy. He invented the field of geography and the term itself. He served as the third librarian at the Library of Alexandria, one of the most significant scholarly avenues of the ancient world. In the field of number theory, he developed an efficient method of finding prime numbers known as the sieve of Eratosthenes. He is however, most famous for finding the circumference of the earth with remarkable accuracy using simple proportions and the angle cast by the Sun's rays during the Summer solstice. He died at the age of 82 in the city of Alexandria.

Samuel Colt

Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1777 to Christopher and Sarah Colt, Samuel Colt grew up in rural areas of Connecticut and attended school in Glastonbury where he was indentured to a farmer. It was in Glastonbury that he became acquainted with the Compendium of Knowledge which was essentially the encyclopedia of the 1700's. It was through experimentation and the Compendium that Colt learned of the workings of firearms and expressed interest in pyrotechnics from a very young age. In fact, at one point in time he was kicked out of boarding school for what was described as an "accident which caused a fire". It was after his exit from boarding school that Colt's father sent him to work on a ship and learn the seaman's trade. During a voyage to Calcutta, Colt observed that as the ship's wheel spun, each spoke would come in contact with a clutch that could be set to hold it. It was this observation that Colt says gave him the idea for the revolver. When he returned to the United States, Colt's father invested in his guns and Colt successfully produced a marketable rifle. In 1836 Samuel Colt changed history by obtaining a United States patent for his Colt revolver. This invention revolutionized the firearm industry because the previous notion that only one bullet could be fired efficiently from a gun had been completely disproven. The basics of Colt's designs are still used in designing modern day revolvers.

Richard Jordan Gatling (1818-1903)

Born in Hertford County, North Carolina, Richard Jordan Gatling came from a family of inventors and he was no exception. At the age of 23, Richard Gatling himself thought of the idea of using a screw propeller to propel steam boats; however, upon his attempt to patent his idea, he found out that John Ericsson had already patented a similar invention days before. Later on, after an almost fatal confrontation with small pox, Richard Gatling decided to become a physician.Gatling's greatest invention was created during the chaos of the Civil War. He developed a hand cranked machine gun in which he called the "Gatling gun." The machine was able to fire 350 rounds a minute. Though the gun was scarcely used in the war, it still contributed to the Union victory as a part of their advanced weaponry. Gatling's model was later improved upon and adopted in a majority of armies around the world.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922)

Born in Scotland in 1847, Bell studied acoustics after his mother's failing hearing caused him to invent new ways of communication with her, such as speaking on her forehead. Self-taught in most areas, Bell was apathetic towards school and only found his passion for education later in his life where he not only took classes at Weston House Academy, he taught them at age 16. He is most well-known for his invention of the first practical telephone, sparking a global revolution in communication. Ever the inventor, Bell also made contributions in a large array of fields, trailblazing modern day inventions like the wireless phone, fiber optics, and magnetic media such as the floppy disk and the tape recorder.

Elon Musk (1973- Present)

Elon musk was born to Canadian and South African parents Errol and Maye Musk. At the age of 17, after graduating Pretoria Boys High School, Musk moved to Canada and attended Queen's University in Ontario. After 2 years in Ontario, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. In 2002, Musk became an American Citizen. Musk is the founder of commercial space flight company SpaceX, which is the first privately owned space exploration company to launch a satellite into low earth orbit, and the current CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors. Tesla is arguably the first commercially successful car manufacturer that sells exclusively electric vehicles. In addition to SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has proposed an idea for a new form of subsonic transportation called Hyperloop that will dramatically reduce costs for transportation between LA and San Francisco.

Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)

Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland to a Reformed Church pastor and a pastor's daughter. Euler's father was friends with the Bernoulli family. He was particularly friendly with Johann Bernoulli who was considered to be one of Europe's leading mathematicians at the time of Euler's childhood. Euler's formal education began in Basel and he eventually enrolled in the University of Basel at age 13. Around the time when he received his Master of Philosophy, Euler began taking lessons in mathematics from Johann Bernoulli. It was during this time that Bernoulli realized Euler's talent for mathematics and attempted to convince Euler's father that he will eventually become a great mathematician despite the fact that his father desired that Euler train to become a pastor like him. One of Euler's most lasting legacies is the modern mathematical notation for functions, summations, and the trigonometric functions. He also was the first to define e with power series and to use it as the base of natural log. Most importantly from an engineering perspective, he made large strides toward taking the calculus developed by Newton and Leibniz and applying its concepts and methods, particularly differential equations, to describe physical problems and participating in the development of the Euler-Bernoulli beam theorem which forms the cornerstone of mechanical and structural engineering.

Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951)

Ferdinand Porsche (September 3rd, 1875 - January 30th, 1951). Porsche exhibited an aptitude for mechanical work at a young age, spending his days working in his father's mechanical shop and his nights attending classes at Imperial Technical School in Liberec, Czech Republic. At the age of 18, Porsche began working with the Béla Egger Electrical Company in Vienna rather than receiving a higher level education. After a few years of work at Béla Egger Electrical Company, Porsche built the electric wheel-hub motor. In 1934, Porsche built the VW Beetle, which used this wheel-hub motor, for Adolph Hitler as the "people's car" of Germany. Porsche developed many vehicles for the German army during World War II, among which was the German Tiger Tank, the world's strongest tank at the time. Porsche would later receive an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Stuttgart for his accomplishments.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838 - 1917)

Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born in Konstance Germany on July 8th, 1838 and died March 8, 1917. Zeppelin attended a military school in Ludwigsburg Germany, visited the University of Tubingen, and later joined the Wurttemberg Army as a lieutenant. During the American Civil War, Zeppelin joined the Union Army as a volunteer and was given the chance to participate in balloon launches which marked an early exposure to ballooning technology of the time. After returning to Germany Zeppelin began to design airships and at the age of 53, Zeppelin decided to leave the Wurttemberg army to pursue the development of rigid airships. The first airship he designed was built in 1900 and Zeppelin continued to improve later models while simultaneously developing large zeppelin production facilities to satisfy demand for his craft. Zeppelin's airships used aluminum frames that held gas cells filled with hydrogen and were powered by large engines that allowed some models to achieve speeds up to 81 mph. Besides purely commercial applications such as passenger transport, the zeppelin was useful in wartimes as a mobile floating watchtower, gunner, or bomber. Over the course of Zeppelin's career his company produced 115 zeppelins, with the overwhelming majority being delivered to the German army and navy (103/115). High demand from the army and navy caused the majority of development to be in response to military needs and resulted in high cruising speed and altitude achievements. Unfortunately for the zeppelin technology, the development of safer transportation methods reduced the popularity of the craft and contributed to the end of production.

Sandford Fleming (1827 -1915):

Fleming was born in Scotland and appointed a surveyor at the early age of 14. At 18, he left Scotland to go to colonial Canada with his older brother, migrating around to various Canadian cities before finally settling in Peterborough with some cousins. In 1862 Fleming proposed a plan for a transcontinental railroad through Canada that would connect the Atlantic and the Pacific. While mildly controversial at the time, Fleming proposed that all bridges be made stone and iron instead of the less expensive wood design. This proposal prevailed due to the fact that his bridges wood be sturdier and fire resistant, so would therefore be more likely to last for long periods of time. Fleming was appointed to the chief engineer post of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1871, but was dismissed in 1880 due to a change of government that handed the project over to a private company. However, in 1884 Fleming became a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway and was present as the final spike of his long project was driven. Fleming is also the man behind modern day time zones. The idea stemmed from him missing a train due to the printed time being different than the train's actual departure time. Fleming then proposed a single world time that he called "Cosmic Time" linked to the city of Greenwich. His idea was not fully accepted until 1929, 14 years after his death.

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

Galileo was born on February 15th, 1564 in Florence, Italy. He was first of six children, and started his formal education in 1574 at the Camaldolese monastery in Vallombrosa. In 1583, he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine. While he was at Pisa, he became interested in mathematics and physics. However, due to financial issues, he left the Univesity in 1585 before earning his degree. Later when he was given the opportunity to teach at the University at Pisa, his criticism of Aristotle left him isolated and his contract to teach was not renewed. His biggest achievements include improvement of the telescope, and astronomical observations supporting Copernicanism (all planets orbit around the sun). His astronomical contributions also include discovery of the four largest satellites in Jupiter, and analysis of sunspots. Also considered one of his finest works, the "Two New Sciences" describes the science of kinematics and strength of materials.

Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923)

Gustave Eiffel, whose full name is Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, was born in Dijon, France in 1832. He attended École Polytechnique with an interest in construction. Later, he attended École Centrale des Arts es Manufactures (College of Art and Manufacturing) in Paris, graduating in 1855. Post-graduation, Eiffel specialized in metal construction, focusing mainly on bridges. He continued work for several years, finding ways of building lighter and stronger structures with the application of mathematics. Eiffel's most famous project was the creation of the Eiffel Tower. He began the project in 1887 for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris. The tower was designed and assembled to handle wind pressure. The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest structure at 984 feet at that time. At first look, many onlookers thought that the unique design of the tower was "hideously modern", but years later, Parisians began to view the tower as a work of art.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (translates to "Leonardo, the son of Messer Piero of Vinci") (April 15, 1452—May 2, 1519):

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was a Florentine man who exemplified the qualities of a "renaissance man," skilled at inventing, medicine, cartography, biology, writing, architecture, sculpture, art, music, and engineering. Da Vinci was born to a wealthy notary named Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci and a peasant named Caterina in, as his name implies, the town of Vinci. Not much is known of his early childhood, except that he received basic training in math and Latin. However, at the age of 14, he became the apprentice of Andrea di Cione, a painter who taught him not only artistic techniques, but also things such as drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics, and carpentry. At the age of 20, Leonardo became a master at the Guild of Saint Luke. He is most famous for his artwork, including the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and The Vitruvian Man. In the vein of The Vitruvian Man, da Vinci drew up many studies of the anatomy of humans and animals, including that of a human fetus. Leonardo was also an avid inventor, creating plans for a flying machine, cannons, muskets, a diving suit, and the first recorded bowed keyboard instrument, the viola organista.

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France. As a youth Pasteur was notably an average student and child, and he studied art and focused heavily on the major sciences. Pasteur achieved a Bachelor in Arts and Science from the École Normale in Paris. After this he became a professor at Strasbourg and eventually became a professor and dean of the University of Lille. During his research at Lille, he worked closely with alcoholic beverages and various solutions and determined that bacteria were the cause of souring in beverages such as milk and beer. His work lent support to the germ theory since it supported the theory of microorganisms and also led to the process known as pasteurization in which boiling drinks could destroy bacteria and thus prolong shelf lives and helped to preserve food. Again building off of the germ theory, he went on to create vaccines for various diseases such as chicken cholera in 1879 as well as anthrax, cholera, tuberculosis, smallpox and rabies. Pasteur was one of the main proponents in propagating widespread support of the germ theory through his work with food preservation and helped to create vaccines for some of the most troublesome and damaging diseases to mankind. What a guy.

Manfred von Ardenne (January, 1907 - May, 1997)

Manfred von Ardenne was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. In school, von Ardenne found himself to be bored with the classroom setting, so after graduation at age 16 his parents built him a personal laboratory in their house for him to conduct experiments. Within that same year he registered for his first patent for a "method for sound selection, especially for the use of wireless telegraphy." In 1936, von Ardenne was contracted by Siemens to help with the construction of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). His work on this project led to the development of a sub-micron probe for the microscope along with many other theorems about how the SEM worked. The research von Ardenne conducted led to better understanding about how the electron beam produced from the probe affected the specimen in the microscope, how the acceleration of the electrons affected the resolution of the image while also affecting the condition of the specimen, and where the back-scattered electron detector should be places within the SEM for optimal image production. Von Ardenne created the scanning electron microscope that would evolve into the modern version used today. This invention was important because the SEM is used in a wide variety of fields today, from detecting micro fractures in the metals used at nuclear power facilities to viewing how cells react to certain illnesses. The scanning electron microscope is used for modern research in almost every subject.

Mark Zuckerberg (1984 - present)

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York and was raised in a well-educated, stable family. He was interested in computers from a young age; at about 12, Zuckerberg was creating his own programs and developing computer games based on drawings his friends would give him. He even took graduate courses at nearby Mercy College before entering high school. For high school, he attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated in 2002. He then went to prestigious Harvard University where he met his wife, Priscilla Chan, as well as developing more computer programs and softwares. Notably, he created "The Facebook" with his roommate and began running the social network site out of his dorm room. As a sophomore in 2004, Zuckerberg and his Facebook team moved to Palo Alto, California to focus on growing Facebook. Zuckerberg took Facebook public in May 2012. Forbes estimates his net worth to be $6.9 billion, making him one of the youngest billionaires in the world. (By Clark Kipp)

Steven Paul Jobs (1995-2011)

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on February 24, 1955. He was born to an unwed couple, Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, whom decided to put him up for adoption. Steve was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold and Clara Jobs. Steve's father, Paul, was a machinist for a company that made lasers. At a very young age, Paul taught Steve elementary electronics and how to work with his hands. As a young teen, Paul taught Steve the parts of radios and televisions by dismantling them and putting them back together. In 1972, Steve Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. Following his high school graduation, Steve attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He dropped out of college after only five and a half months. For the following two years, Steve continued to walk/sit in on classes at Reed. In 1976, Steve Jobs along with two of his friends Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple computer in Steve's parent's garage. In 2002, Steve Jobs came up with the idea of a touch screen phone with a new interface know as iOS. In 2007, Apple released his invention most commonly known as the original "iPhone." Steve Jobs died at his home in California on October 5, 2011 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. Steve Job's legacy still moves on today with the eighth generation iPhone named "iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus" released on September 16, 2014.

Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was homeschooled by his mother and worked as a telegrapher in early adulthood. His first inventions, such as the stock ticker, were related to telegraphy and his first patent was the electric vote recorder. Edison first gained significant attention with his invention of the phonograph in 1877. He is generally credited with starting the first industrial laboratory. He later invented the carbon microphone. Contrary to popular belief, Edison was not the first to invent an electric light bulb but rather he was the first to invent a commercially practical one. Edison started the Edison Electric Light Company (known today as General Electric) in 1878. He was the main proponent of direct current (DC) and waged a "War of Currents" against alternating current (AC) because he had economic interest in its failure. Edison also held patents for media inventions such as the "Kinetograph" motion picture camera and the "Kinetoscope" peep-hole video viewer.

William Redington Hewlett (20 May 1913-12 Jan 2001)

William R. Hewlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on May 20, 1913. He grew up in San Francisco, and attended Lowell High School. Despite struggling with Dyslexia, Hewlett enjoyed discovering how things worked, and was admitted to Stanford University in 1930. After graduating from Stanford in 1934, he earned a master's degree in engineering from MIT and returned to Stanford to continue his graduate studies in 1936. In 1939, Hewlett and close friend David Packard formed the Hewlett-Packard Company, which produced audio oscillators. Audio oscillators are devices that generate one pure tone or frequency at a time, and are used in telephones, radios, stereos, and other audio equipment. HP soon became known for not only its innovative technology, but for the modern operating principles that are commonplace today, e.g. flexible work hours, health insurance, etc. In 1985, Hewlett received the Presidential Medal of Science, the nation's highest recognition for scientific achievement, from Ronald Reagan.