Black Inventors in Technology

It's Black History Month and we're celebrating achievements by Black Inventors and Innovators in Telecommunications

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson and Otis Boykin are two names you may not be familiar with, but you have used many products and technologies that they're responsible for inventing. 
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Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson:
Her Research set the foundation for others to invent the portable fax, touch tone telephone, solar cells, fiber optic cables, caller ID and call waiting

We can thank Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson for her breakthrough scientific research at Bell Laboratories that paved the way for these inventions and products:

• portable fax
  
• touch tone telephone
  
• solar cells
  
• fiber optic cables
  
• the technology behind caller ID and call waiting

Jackson's interest in science and math started in childhood. She conducted studies and experiments for fun; these passions took her to MIT where she studied physics. Besides Jackson's important discoveries, she was also the first woman of color to earn a Ph.D. from MIT. 

Dr. Jackson is currently the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where her goal is "to achieve prominence in the 21st century as a top-tier world-class technological research university, with global reach and global impact." 

Learn more about
​Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson

Otis Boykin:
​Inventor of wire precision resistor, control unit for the pacemaker

Otis Boykin is included in the list of great Black Inventors in the technology realm. He had 26 patents at the time of his death in 1982, including the wire precision resistor and pacemaker control unit.

Boykin graduated from Fisk College in 1941, then worked with the Majestic Radio and TV Corporation, and P.J. Nilsen Research Laboratories. 

He invented for fun and on his own time, and eventually started his own business. 

The resistor that Boykin invented would later be used in radios and televisions. He also created a breakthrough device that could withstand extreme changes in temperature and pressure, which was used by the United States military for guided missiles and by IBM for computers.

Learn more about
​Otis Boykin

Innovation starts with an Idea.
If you want to share an idea with us to improve your business and telecommunications, we are ready to innovate with you!

Let's Innovate