Gregorio Zara — Filipino physicist and aeronautical engineer
Creator of the first videophone ( a forerunner of such video
telecommunication applications as Skype, Webcam and
videoconferencing) and discoverer of the physical law known as
the “Zara Effect.” PLEASE SHARE IF YOU ARE INSPIRED BY THIS
STORY! Back in the 1950′s, the videophone — a telephone device
that allows you to see the individual you are speaking with in
real (or near-real) time — was a mere dream of science fiction.
But physicist and aeronautical engineer Gregorio Zara, one of
the Philippines’ most celebrated inventors, began to change all
that in 1955 when he introduced the first videophone. Gregorio,
the creator of other early models of futuristic technology (
including a solar battery, a talking robot, and an airplane
engine powered by biofuel), was born in 1902 in Lipa City,
Batangas, a province in the Philippines. After graduating as
valedictorian of his high school class, he enrolled at the
University of the Philippines, and later went o