The University City Science Center is looking for a few good women — three to be exact — as honorees for its Innovators Walk of Fame.
The Philadelphia institution is reinventing the pedestrian walkway along 37th Street between Market and Chestnut as a pocket park — the Innovators Walk of Fame will be a key element.
“With a name like Innovators Walk of Fame, we thought it was imperative to come up with something more innovative than names etched on the sidewalk,” explains Science Center Spokesperson Jeanne Mell. “Instead we’re going with an arrangement of cubes with metal panels etched with the honorees’ names.”
The second group of honorees, to be announced in October, will celebrate female innovators with a connection to Greater Philadelphia.
“The Innovators Walk of Fame reflects the diversity of the local, regional and global communities in which the Science Center operates and innovates,” says Science Center President Stephen S. Tang. “The face of innovation is varied and diverse, and to be relevant the Innovators Walk of Fame must reflect that spectrum.”
The inaugural class of honorees comprised legacy innovators in the STEAM Categories:
* Britton Chance was a leader in biochemistry and biophysics focusing on the physics of electronics and radiation, and developing noninvasive optical devices used in medicine.
* John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. created the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, developed at the University of Pennsylvania.
* Frank Piasecki was instrumental in the U.S. helicopter industry.
* Buckminster Fuller invented the geodesic dome.
* Mathematician John Backus assembled and led the IBM team that developed Fortran, for years one of the pre-eminent programming systems.
* Lockheed Martin encourages its 4,800 employees in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to actively interact with the next generation of engineers and technologists by serving as local school advisors, extracurricular activity mentors and career role models for students.
Nominees may be alive or dead, and are not limited by industry or type of innovation. According to the Science Center, successful nominations will complete this sentence: “If not for this woman’s innovation, the world would be a lesser place because…”
The deadline is June 15.
Source: Jeanne Mell, University City Science Center
Writer: Elise Vider
