UC ranked by National Academy of Inventors

UC has a history of innovation, including:

• First steam-powered fire engine — Alexander Latta, faculty member, College of Applied Science's predecessor school OMI, helped develop this technology in 1852.
• National Weather Service — First observations leading to the National Weather Service came from Cincinnati Observatory director Cleveland Abbe in the 1860s.
• First program of cooperative education — Developed by engineering dean Herman Schneider in 1906. He later became the university president.
• First electronic organ — Invented by student Winston Kock, Eng '32, MS (Eng) '33, HonDoc '52, as his electrical engineering undergraduate thesis.
• First antihistamine, Benadryl — Chemical engineering researcher George Rieveschl (1916-2007), A&S ’37, MS (A&S) ’39, PhD (A&S) ’40, HonDoc ’56, developed it in the 1940s.
• First oral polio vaccine — Developed by medical researcher Albert Sabin, HonDoc '74, in the late 1950s. Approved for use in the United States in the late 1960s, the vaccine has saved untold millions around the world from paralytic polio and death.
• First heart-lung machine — In 1951, UC cardiologist Samuel Kaplan, chemist Leland Clark and surgery professor James Helmsworth developed the world’s first functional heart-lung machine, located at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
• First YAG laser used — In 1984, neurosurgery professor John Tew was the country’s first surgeon to receive FDA approval to use the YAG laser to vaporize previously inoperable brain tumors.

The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.