On April 15 1973, Motorola engineer Marty Cooper placed the first public call from a cellphone. In midtown Manhattan, Cooper called Joel Engel, head of rival research department Bell Labs, saying “Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone, a real hand held portable cell phone.” The call was placed on a Motorola Dynatac 8000x, which weighed 2.5 pounds, a far cry from today’s 4-ounce handsets.

If it wasn’t for Dr. Henry T. Sampson we wouldn’t have cell phone technology today. Isn’t it funny how the mainstream media hasn’t made him an icon based off of his invention? Cellular telephony has spawned a multibillion dollar industry and has freed tens of millions of people, both at home and at work, to communicate anywhere and anytime. I would have thought he would be on the Times and Forbes magazines next to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for discovering one of the greatest creations of our time.

Dr. Henry T. Sampson: The first African American to earn a PhD in Nuclear Engineering in the United States. On July 6th 1971, Henry T Sampson invented the “gamma-electric cell,” which pertains to nuclear reactor use. According to Dr. Sampson, the gamma-electric cell produces high-voltage output and current to detect radiation in the ground. With the invention of cellular phone service in 1983, personal communications no longer depended on wires. In the 1990s it would become possible to connect to the internet from virtually anywhere in the world using a portable computer and a cellular modem with satellite service.

Technologies that developed from different fields, such as personal communications, computations and space exploration often worked together to serve the constantly evolving human needs of the information age.

Paul A. Ransom is a resident of Valdosta.