Google Doodle Celebrates 108th Birth Anniversary of Otto Wichterle, Inventor of Contact Lens

Google on Wednesday is celebrating the life and legacy of Otto Wichterle, Czech chemist who invented the soft contact lens, with a Doodle. Today, October 27, marks the 108th birth anniversary of the man whose invention is now used by an estimated 140 million people around the world. He was born on this day in 1913 in Prostĕjov, the Czech Republic (then, Austria-Hungary).

Today’s Google Doodle shows Wichterle holding up a single piece of contact lens upon his fingertips, while light is reflected to form the Google logo, as representative of eyesight.

As a lover of science from his youth, Wichterle went on to earn his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1936 from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT). He taught as a professor at his alma mater during the 1950s while developing an absorbent and transparent gel for eye implants.

Political turmoil pushed Wichterle out of the ICT, leading him to continue refining his hydrogel development at home. In 1961, Wichterle, a glasses wearer himself, produced the first soft contact lenses with a DIY apparatus made of a child’s erector set, a bicycle light battery, a phonograph motor, and homemade glass tubing and molds.

As the inventor of countless patents and a lifelong researcher, Wichterle was elected the first President of the Academy of the Czech Republic following the country’s establishment in 1993.

While Wichterle is most well-known as the inventor of contact lenses, his innovations also laid the foundation for state-of-the-art medical technologies such as “smart” biomaterials, which are used to restore human connective tissues, and bio-recognizable polymers, which have inspired a new standard for drug administration.

Here’s a look at early draft of the Wednesday’s Doodle shared by Google.

Happy birthday, Otto Wichterle.

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