Mária Telkes Parents: Who were Maria Telkes Parents?

Mária Telkes was a Hungarian-American biophysicist, scientist, and inventor. Maria Telkes was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1900 to Aladar Telkes, a well-to-do bank manager and Maria Laban de Telkes.

She attended elementary and high school in Budapest. Telkes studied physical chemistry at the University of Budapest, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1920 and a PhD four years later.

Despite being hired as a university instructor after graduation, Telkes accepted her uncle Ern Ludwig’s invitation to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked for the Hungarian consulate.

Mária Telkes found work in the Cleveland Biophysical Institute’s research laboratory, where he studied the effects of radiation on brain cells. Her first invention, a photoelectric device that recorded brain waves, was created there.

According to Éva Vámos, who wrote a profile of Telkes in the 2011 book European Women in Chemistry, Telkes was named one of the 11 best-known women in the United States in 1934 by the New York Times, along with ten society ladies and film and sports stars.

During her seven decades in the United States, she only returned to Hungary, where her nuclear family remained, once at the age of 95. She died during her visit.