What do the Stealth Bomber program, the Super Soaker water gun, a robot made from junkyard parts and a renewable solar energy converter have in common? Lonnie G. Johnson.

Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1949, his family supported his curiosity and experimentation...mostly. Surely his sister was not too happy when he took apart her baby doll to see what made the eyes open and close. No doubt there were also frowns when he tried to cook up rocket fuel in one of his mother's saucepans and the whole thing exploded. Oops!

Nonetheless, his family did encourage him. In fact, his father taught and urged Lonnie and his five siblings to create and build their own toys like the go-kart Lonnie built at age 13 from junkyard scraps and a used lawnmower engine. All went well until the police pulled him over when he tried racing it along the highway!

Not everyone was as supportive as his family, however. Segregation was still legal and he was told that he should limit his dreams, that perhaps he could become a technician but to give up any hopes of becoming a scientist or engineer. In 1968, he represented his all-black Williamson High School at a Science Fair at a Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) competition. It was held at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. He was the only black student in the entire competition. After all, it was only five years after Alabama Governor George Wallace had physically tried to block two black students from enrolling. Lonnie's hand built robot, "the Linex," won first place.

Lonnie did not give up his dreams. At Tuskegee University he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in nuclear engineering. He went on to join the U.S. Air Force, and helped develop the stealth bomber program. While working as an engineer for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Observer project, and the Cassini mission to Saturn, he earned several awards for his spacecraft control systems.

While no longer working for the Air Force or NASA he continues to play and invent with over 80 patents to his name (and 20 more pending!) This includes, of course, the ever popular "Super Soaker" that he developed while working on another project, an environmentally friendly heat pump. While that may be one of his most fun innovations another one may have a much larger global impact. The Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converter (JTEC) can convert thermal energy from a variety of waste heat sources making efficient, renewable clean energy a reality. Lonnie G. Johnson still dreams and encourages others to reach for theirs. He serves on the board of the Georgia Alliance for Children and is a member of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, an organization that mentors high school and college students. He and his wife, Linda Moore, have four children and live in Atlanta, GA.