Excerpts from Student-conducted Interviews
"Lack of business acumen was a vestige of parental clerical standards (Tesla's father was a priest), rather than an inattention to money details. It closely connects to the altruism and desire to serve mankind rather than to accumulate wealth." William H. Terbo, Grand-nephew of Nikola Tesla, and last remaining relative and one of the last people to have met Tesla.
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Jane Alcorn, President of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
I hope that I can encourage you to follow in Tesla’s example to question, to investigate, and to explore; to take his example of remaining curious about the world, and looking for answers without taking the word of others as a way to find the truth." |
Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D.,
Outreach Historian IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) History Center Tesla was a remarkable individual, which means that it's hardly realistic to use his accomplishments or his lifestyle as a template or inspiration. Instead we can look at him like Mozart and marvel at what a human being is capable of creating." |
Paul Israel, Ph.D.,
Director and General Editor for the Thomas Edison Papers at Rutgers University. Unlike Tesla, Edison was involved not just in research and invention but in the commercialization of the technologies. In addition, Edison was involved in the founding of three different industries... While both inventors worked on several different technologies Edison was more commercially successful than Tesla." |
Tom McNichol, author of
AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War. I think [Tesla's] more lasting achievement is that he dreamed big. He was always attracted to the impossible. He was both a scientist grounded in the real world and and a visionary who pushed scientific boundaries." |
Marc Seifer, author of
Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, Biography of a Genius. Tesla was just as famous as Edison in his hey-day. He was a star of the gilded age ... He was a headliner for many years but drifted into obscurity particularly after he died in the early 1940’s and he stayed in obscurity until the mid 1990’s" |
Stephen Frank, PhD, Commercial Building Systems Integration National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Tesla was a brilliant engineer, a passionate scientist, and a tireless promoter of the wonders of technology. Not only did his inventions create the electrical power industry, but his dazzling demonstrations also excited people about technology and about engineering" |