10 unsung heros of technology

Without heroes such as Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf and Bob Metcalfe we might not able to connect to and surf the web.

However, for every well-known 'father' of technology, there are plenty of unsung heroes that have played just as an important role in our lives but yet remain relatively unknown.

That's about to change as we've rounded up the 10 most important unknown heroes of technology.

Marty Cooper

Cooper filed a patent for the 'radio telephone system' in 1973, while working at Motorola, and was the first person to make a call on a portable mobile phone. (He called a rival engineer at Bell Labs.)

Cooper has stated that his inspiration came from watching Star Trek's Captain Kirk talk on his communicator device. Today, Cooper is the CEO and founder of ArrayComm.

Mike Lazaridis

Born in Turkey to Greek parents, Lazaridis was five years old when his family moved to Canada. At age 12, he won a prize for reading every science book in his public library.

He dropped out of college to start Research in Motion in 1984 and subsequently developed the BlackBerry. In 2000, he put up $100m to start an institute devoted to the study of theoretical physics.

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NEXT PAGE: Tony Fadell and John Backus

1. You may not be aware of these 'fathers of industry'
2. Tony Fadell and John Backus
3. The father of telecommuting and the inventor of the mouse
4. Gary Thuerk and John Cioffi
5. The heroes of Unix and wireless standards