While Otto Wichterle is best known as the inventor of the contact lens, his innovations also laid the foundation for cutting-edge medical technologies such as “smart” biomaterials.
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the life and legacy of Czech chemist Otto Wicherle, who invented the soft contact lens, on his 108th birthday. Wichlerle was born on this day in 1913 in Prostejov, Czech Republic (then Austria-Hungary).
A lover of science from his youth, Vicherle earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in 1936. He taught as a professor at his alma mater during the 1950s, developing an absorbent and transparent gel for eye implants.
While Wichterle is best known as the inventor of contact lenses, his innovations laid the foundation for cutting-edge medical technologies such as “smart” biomaterials, which are used to restore human connective tissues, and bioidentifiable polymers, which Has inspired a new standard for drug administration.