Sports bra, Ibuprofen inventors added to CES Hall of Fame
The inventors of the sports bra were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame Tuesday at CES.
Hinda Miller, Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith invented the sports bra in 1975.
“It’s led to greater inclusivity for women, in athletics, in overall health and well-being for women,” said Rini Paiva, NIHF’s executive vice president of selection and recognition. “For us, this is a really inspiring legacy to recognize.”
The Hall of Fame has been inducting patented inventors who have helped change the world since 1973, Paiva said. Twenty-two inventors were inducted this year.
Other inductees to 2020’s slate include the three inventors of Kiva Systems: Peter Wurman, Mick Mountz and Raffaello D’Andrea.
Kiva robots have become a staple in warehouses and distribution centers, where they scoot around handling packages and materials.
Amazon announced it bought Kiva Systems for $775 million in cash in 2012 and the company is now known as Amazon Robotics.
“We started with the notion of, ‘What if the products could walk and talk on their own and sort themselves out?’” said Mountz. “All of that quickly led to mobile robotics, mobile shelving and machine help.”
James McEwen, the man who patented the auto surgical tourniquet in 2013, also was inducted. Paiva said his patent affects 20,000 surgeries daily around the world.
Notable historical inductees this year included Stewart Adams and John Nicholson, the inventors of Ibuprofen in 1961, and Floyd Smith, who invented the modern parachute in 1919.
Mountz said all great inventions come from a problem that needs to be solved.
“Always question the status quo. Be critical of the ways that people solve problems today and try to think of better ways of doing it,” D’Andrea said.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
A Twitter List by reviewjournal
This story has been updated to correctly identify the man who patented the auto surgical tourniquet in 2013.
