Wilson Greatbatch

Wilson Greatbatch was an American electrical engineer who developed the first practical implantable cardiac pacemaker. Working with surgeon William Chardack, he built a small pulse-generating circuit, using two transistors and a coupling transformer and sealed in epoxy resin, that could be implanted directly in a patient's body to regulate heartbeat, a design that led Medtronic to begin manufacturing implantable pacemakers. He later championed replacing the mercury batteries used in early pacemakers with a lithium-iodide cell of his own design, and by 1974 pacemakers using his lithium cell were in production; that chemistry remains the industry standard for pacemaker power sources because of its higher energy density and long, predictable lifespan. Over his career he held more than 325 patents. He received the Lemelson-MIT Prize and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1990, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.