Google celebrates the 108th birth anniversary of Otto Wichterle through doodle who was the Czech chemist and the founder of soft contact lenses. He is the author and co-author of approximately 180 patents and over 200 publications.
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| Czech chemist Otto Wichterle is in Google doodle (Photo:-Google) |
On wednesday, Google doodle celebrates the 108th birth anniversary of the Czech chemist Otto Wichterle. He is the founder of contact lenses which is the boon for millions of people who use it. In the doodle, he holds a contact lens in the index finger of his hand.
He was born in 1913 on this same day in Prestejov, Czech Republic (Austria-Hungary). After finishing high school, he began his study in Chemical and Technological faculty of the Czech Technical University but he was also interested in medicine. He graduated in 1936 and then went to earn his doctorate degree in organic chemistry from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology.
Wichterle also taught as a professor at his alma mater in 1950 while developing transparent and absorbent gel for eye implants. Due to political reasons, he had been sent out from the Institute of Chemical Technology which led him to continue the development of hydrogel at home.
In 1961, Wichterle who himself used to wear glasses, produced the first soft contact lenses with a DIY apparatus made of a child’s erector set, a bicycle light battery, a phonograph motor and homemade glass tubing and molds.
Wichterle is also the author of large number of studies both great and small as well as several independent books of organic, inorganic, macromolecular chemistry, polymer science and biomedical materials. He is the author and co-author of approximately 180 patents and over 200 publications.
Because of Wichterle’s number of researches and countless patents, he was elected the first president of the Academy of Czech Republic following the country’s establishment in 1993.
“While Wichterle is most well-known as the inventor of contact lenses, his innovations also laid the foundation for state-of-the-art medical technologies such as “smart” biomaterials, which are used to restore human connective tissues, and bio-recognizable polymers, which have inspired a new standard for drug administration.” Google wrote.
The asteroid number was named after him in 1993. A high school in Ostrava in Czech Republic also named after Wichterle on September 1, 2006.