Nikola Tesla

Date of Birth: July 10, 1856

Profession:  Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist.

Notable Works: invented the radio, X-rays, vacuum tube amplifier, alternating current, Tesla Coil, and more, completely reshaping the world of electrical engineering, even to this day.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Grand Officer of the Order of St. Sava (1892); Elliott Cresson Medal (1894); Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Danilo I (1895); AIEE Edison Medal (1916); Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sava (1926); Cross of the Order of the Yugoslav Crown (1931); John Scott Medal (1934); Order of the White Eagle (1936); Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion (1937); Medal of the University of Paris (1937); The Medal of the University St. Clement of Ochrida (1939).

Henry Ford

Date of Birth: July 30, 1863

Profession: American industrialist and business magnate.

Notable Works: He was the founder of Ford Motor Company, invented the Model T Ford and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. Ford created the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford, and his conversion of the automobile from an expensive luxury into an accessible conveyance profoundly impacted the landscape of the 20th century.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Ford was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. Franklin Institute‘s Elliott Cresson Medal (1928); Automotive Hall of Fame (1946); U.S. Business Hall of Fame (1975); National Aviation Hall of Fame (1985); Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1996).

Gerald M Edelman

Date of Birth: July 1, 1929

Profession: American biologist, Nobel laureate

Notable Works: Edelman’s Nobel Prize-winning research concerned the discovery of the structure of antibody molecules. In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize and his later work in neuroscience and in the philosophy of mind.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972.

John Ericsson

Date of Birth: July 31, 1803

Profession: Swedish-American inventor

Notable Works: The inventor of the screw propeller, a device used to propel ships through water. Ericsson designed and built the USS Monitor, an ironclad warship, during the American Civil War. The Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy and is famous for its innovative revolving turret design. He invented a compact and efficient heat exchanger known as the surface condenser. It was widely used in steam engines and other industrial applications to improve energy efficiency. Ericsson developed a solar-powered engine in 1866, which used the sun’s energy to produce steam and drive a piston. It was one of the early attempts to harness solar power for practical purposes. He also designed a self-propelled torpedo known as the “Ericsson torpedo” in 1866. It was an early version of the modern torpedo and was used by several navies around the world.

Rosalind Franklin

Date of Birth: July 25, 1920

Profession: British chemist and X-ray crystallographer.

Notable Works: Contributing to finding the structure of DNA, fine structure of coal and graphite, and virus structures.

Prestigious Honours and Awards: Although she didn’t receive any recognition during her lifetime, The Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award was established in 2003 to annually award women for their outstanding work in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).