Marian Croak is behind the tech that enables us to talk on FaceTime, Zoom, and other apps that connect friends, family and others around the globe.

Marian Croak from the Great Class of 1977 holds the patent for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which helps us make calls over the internet instead of a phone line.

Marian Croak has spent her life inventing. After graduating from #princetonuniversity and earning her Ph.D. from #uscedu, she worked at Bell Labs-Nokia in New Jersey, creating technologies “in service of humanity.” She went on to work for AT&T and is now vice president of engineering at Google.

In 2022, Marian, owner of 200+ U.S. patents, was one of the first two Black women to be inducted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Among her inventions is the text-to-donate function that her team helped create in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which has helped to raise millions of dollars since its inception in 2005.

Croak also leads the Research Center for Responsible AI and Human Centered Technology at Google, which “ensures that Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning positively impacts users and the world, particularly marginalized communities."

Content/photo credit Princeton University Instagram, courtesy of the Inventors Hall of Fame. #hebrewhistory