Amateur pianist Edward TellerCame to the U.S. from Hungary in 1935. Worked on implosions for atomic bombs. Wanted to build a 50-gigaton hydrogen bomb and lobbied against nuclear test bans. Early climate change alarmist. |
Inventor of spread spectrum communication Hedy LamarrCame to the U.S. from Austria in 1937; her 1940 work on frequency-hopping communications inspired Guglielmo Marconi's 1899 experiments. |
Speedboat enthusiast Sergei RachmaninoffCame to the U.S. from Russia in 1918; liked to play the piano . |
Amateur lepidopterist Vladimir NabokovCame to the U.S. from Russia in 1940; supporter of the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon; wrote a screenplay for Peter Sellers. |