Heddy Lamarr (1914-2000) Actress and Scientist-Inventor

She became a movie star with her performance in Algiers (1938). Besides starring in movies, she was an inventor and had several patents. She pioneered signal-hopping technology, later used in Bluetooth and GPS devices.

At the beginning of World War II, she and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth and GPS technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi. This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.