Wilson Greatbatch-Inventor of The Pacemaker

Wilson Greatbatch (6 September 1919 - September 27, 2011) was an American engineer and inventor. He holds over 350 patents and is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Prize.


Wilson Greatbatch was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1919. When the United States entered World War II, Greatbatch left his studies at Buffalo State Teachers College and adapted his skills as an amateur radio operator to be a military radioman. After the war, the GI Bill gave Greatbatch the opportunity to study for an engineering degree at Cornell University, where he was distinguished for having the majority of children (five) than anyone else in its class. While working part-time at Cornell animal behavior farm, Greatbatch chatted with visiting brain surgeons during lunch and learn about the complete heart block.


In this disease, the electrical impulses sent by the sinus node of the heart to the heart muscles, causing them to contract and pump blood, disturbed. Greatbatch immediately thought of designing an artificial pacemaker can beimplanted in the chest and deliver a shock that would cause the heart to beat.At time, though, in the early 1950s, no component is small enough to buildsuch available devices.

After receiving a bachelor degree in electrical engineering from Cornell, Greatbatch earned a master of theState University of New York at Buffalo in 1957. In 1958, Greatbatch met Dr.William Chardack Buffalo Veterans Administration Hospital and told him about the idea of ​​a pacemaker. Chardack Greatbatch said that could save 10 000 lives per year with such a tool, which can now be feasibly small because transistors are available. Within two weeks, Greatbatch had built a pacemaker that can be applied; in two years he had built fifty pacemakers and implanted firstones successfully in humans. In the 1970s, after more than 10 years the use of successful pacemaker, Greatbatch turned to the design of improved battery life. He found, a pacemaker is needed for reliable live in lithium batteries, the company started manufacturing.


Furthermore, Greatbatch investigating biomass energy projects, planting thousands of acres of poplar trees. This in turnaroused Greatbatch interest in cloning plants and working with tissue culture and gene synthesis. His company, Greatbatch Gen-Aid, then proceed to try the synthesis of genes that can block retroviral diseases such as AIDS and T-cell leukemia. Greatbatch preferred to describe himself as an engineering executive or entrepreneur is not the inventor, but its more than 150 patents certainly qualify him for the last title. In 1986 Greatbatch made amember of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.