New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer · Public domain

Telkes built the first solar water still deployed for rescuing downed airmen and torpedoed sailors during the Second World War, then spent the rest of her career trying to make solar energy practical for ordinary use. With architect Eleanor Raymond she designed the Dover Sun House, one of the first homes heated entirely by stored solar energy, and later built a solar oven suited to different latitudes. Colleagues called her the Sun Queen; she held more than 20 patents and was the first woman to receive the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award.