Mária Telkes Husband: Did Maria Telkes get married?

Mária Telkes was a Hungarian-American biophysicist, scientist, and inventor. Mária Telkes was never married and she had no children.

Telkes became a citizen of the United States in 1937. That same year, she started working as a research engineer at Westinghouse Electric.

She created instruments that converted heat into electrical energy there. In 1939, she began researching solar energy.

Her desire to create a home heating system that used clean solar energy rather than fossil fuels was quickly derailed by World War II.

In 1941, Telkes was reassigned to the United States Office of Scientific Research and Development, where she used her skills to create a portable water desalination kit that would save pilots and sailors stranded in the Pacific Ocean from dying of dehydration.

Her patented invention, a collapsible purifier made of clear plastic film, was eventually included in standard-issue military emergency kits.

Maria Telkes was the first woman to receive the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award in 1952. She was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2012.