I don’t know if it was The View or CBS Sunday Morning but between the two I learned about a woman I had never heard about before: Marian Rogers Croak.
Marian Croak holds more than 200 patents. Recently inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her patent regarding VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Technology, her invention allows users to make calls over the internet instead of a phone line. Today, the widespread use of VoIP technology is vital for remote work and conferencing.
Born in 1955, Croak ‘s interest in science began when her father built her a home chemistry set. Whenever a repairman came to the house, Marian would follow, bugging him with questions about their equipment and troubleshooting procedures. Now she has her B.A. from Princeton and Ph.D. from USC, specializing in Quantitative Analysis and Social Psychology.
During time at AT&T, Croak and her team contemplated the potential of digital telecommunications. She worked on advancing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies, converting voice data into digital signals that can be transmitted over the internet rather than using traditional phone lines. At AT&T, Croak patented the technology that allowed cellphone users to donate money to organizations using text messaging. She developed this technology during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, receiving the Thomas Edison Patent Award for this technology. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, more than $43 million in donations were collected through donations by text message.
Currently she is a Vice President of Engineering at Google, as a Vice President in the engineering group. She is responsible for expanding what the Internet is capable of doing around the world and increasing access to the Internet in the developing World.
She is also involved in the ethical and responsible development of artificial intelligence.
“There’s quite a lot of conflict right now within the field, and it can be polarizing at times,” she said in 2021. “What I’d like to do is have the conversation in a more diplomatic way, so we can truly advance this field.”
