Michael Pupin

Born in Idvor, in what is now Serbia, in 1858, Michael Idvorsky Pupin emigrated to the United States as a teenager and eventually studied at Columbia, Cambridge, and the University of Berlin. He went on to become a professor of mathematical physics at Columbia University and built a major reputation as both a scientist and an inventor.

Pupin is best remembered for work that improved long-distance telephony, especially the loading coils often linked with the term “Pupinization.” He also worked in electrical resonance and early X-ray research, and he received wide recognition in his lifetime for his scientific contributions.

He was also an accomplished author. His autobiography, From Immigrant to Inventor, won the Pulitzer Prize and helped make his personal journey as famous as his laboratory work. He died in 1935, but he remains an important figure in the history of communications, science, and Serbian American cultural life.