Hedy Lamarr was considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe. Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, she became a film star in Europe by the 1930s, and soon after, she achieved similar recognition in the U.S. In addition to her acting career, Hedy pursued inventing.
Motivated to assist U.S. efforts during WWII, she focused on designing a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that would counter the threat of jamming.
Although her innovation was not used during the war, the principles she developed are now integrated into modern technologies such as Wi-Fi, CDMA, and Bluetooth.
On August 11, 1942, Hedy Lamarr was granted a patent for her revolutionary “frequency hopping communication system,” which forms the basis of much of today’s wireless technology. In recognition of her achievements, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
