Wilson Greatbatch

Wilson Greatbatch (September 6, 1919 – September 27, 2011) was an American engineer and pioneering inventor. He held more than 350 patents and was a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Lemelson–MIT Prize and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1990)

Greatbatch was born in Buffalo, New York and attended public grade school at West Seneca High School West Seneca. He entered military service and served during World War II, becoming an aviation chief radioman before receiving an honorable discharge in 1945. He attended Cornell University as part of the GI Bill, graduating with a B.E.E. in electrical engineering in 1950; he received a master's degree from the University of Buffalo in 1957. Wilson loved fiddling with objects and this would lead to other great things.

The Chardack-Greatbatch pacemaker used Mallory mercuric oxide-zinc cells (mercury battery) for its energy source, driving a two transistor, transformer coupled blocking oscillator circuit, all encapsulated in epoxy resin, then coupled to electrodes placed into the myocardium of the patient's heart. This patented innovation led to the Medtronic company of Minneapolis commencing manufacture and further development of artificial cardiac pacemakers.

...
Wikipedia