The inventor of N95 masks had retired. But he now
works 20 hours a day, mostly for free, to fight covid-19.
“Tsai came to the United States in 1981 to pursue his
doctoral degree in a variety of subjects at Kansas State University, where he
completed more than 500 credits, despite needing only 90 to graduate. His
thirsty intellect drove him to take courses in subjects ranging from chemical
engineering to physics and math.
His breakthrough on the mask came when he was leading
a research team at the University of Tennessee in 1992. The team’s goal was to
develop an electrostatic charging technology — coincidentally called corona
charging — to filter out unwanted particles. His invention eventually became
the foundation of the N95 respiratory mask”.