The next time you pour a glass of milk, buy a toothbrush or fill your gas tank, thank a Miner. There’s a good chance that a fellow graduate invented something that keeps your milk fresh, your toothbrush packaging streamlined or your fuel from spilling onto the pavement.

Dan Scott, MetE’70, holds 105 patents, the second-most in his employer’s history. He has 55 more that are pending examination and over 400 international counterparts to his U.S. patents.

The Center for Automotive Research estimates that 3 to 5 percent of all patents granted in the U.S. are awarded to the auto industry, with as many as 5,000 patents awarded every year. Miner alumni are responsible for several of those. Here are a few examples.

Before the era of jet planes, scientists didn’t realize that thunderstorm cells could stretch as high as 90,000 feet into the atmosphere.

Joseph G. Straeter, PetE’83, has spent his life tinkering, modifying, improving — inventing — and his work has made him one of the most prolific Miner inventors. From the flower fields to the oil fields, Straeter’s patents at last count total over 500.

Bill Jacobs, ME’64, is fluent in at least two “languages.” “I tell people I’m bilingual,” he says. “I can work in metal and plastics.”