Google Doodle celebrates Maria Telkes ‘The Sun Queen’ of solar energy

Maria Telkes, nicknamed “The Sun Queen”, one of the first pioneers of solar energy who believed the power of the sun could change human lives, is the subject of Monday’s Google Doodle.

Dr Telkes was born on December 12, 1900, in Budapest, Hungary, and studied physical chemistry at Eotvos Lorand University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 1920 and her PhD in 1924. The following year, she relocated to the US and accepted a position as a biophysicist, becoming a US citizen in 1937.

She went on to work as a member of the Solar Energy Committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During World War II, the US government asked her to assist in the development of a solar distiller that converted seawater into fresh water.