Hedy Lamarr was a 1940s Hollywood film star and scientist who co-invented frequency hopping, a technology that helped the Allies win World War II.
Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna in 1914. She became an early film star in Europe and left her husband because of his ties to Nazis, escaping to London and eventually moving to Hollywood, where she skyrocketed to fame in the 1930s and 40s.
Though she had no formal training in science or technology, Hedy was smart and working with a composer, she invented frequency hopping. This technology allowed radio transmitters to switch or hop across frequency channels when relaying messages so they couldn’t be intercepted, helping the Allies win World War II. Hedy was awarded a patent but she wasn’t recognized for her achievements until decades later.
Hedy Lamarr died in 2000. But finally, in 2014, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
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