Today is famous German glass chemist Marga Faulstich’s 103rd birth anniversary, and Google honored her with a doodle. The first woman executive at global glass manufacturer Schott AG, she worked there for 44 years on more than 300 types of optical glasses.
Born on June 16, 1915, Faulstich graduated her high school in 1935 and soon after began her training as the graduate assistant at Schott AG. At that time, it was one of the biggest manufacturing companies of optical and technical specialty glasses in Europe and during her early years in the company, she worked on the development of thin films.
Through her hard work, she soon became a technician, then a scientific assistant and then, finally, a scientist. It was after her fiance’s death during the second world war that she made her career her sole point of focus. In 1942, while continuing to work with the same company, she started studying chemistry. She received international recognition for her invention of the lightweight lens SF 64 and was honored for the same in 1973.
It was in 1979 that she retired from the company after 44 years of service and spent years after that traveling to distant lands, occasionally giving lectures and presentations at glass conferences. On 1 February 1998 in Mainz, she passed away at the age of 82.