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Before the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Peter Tsai was far from a household name. Even though he was well-respected as a materials scientist and inventor, very few people had heard of him.

Until now.

COVID-19 had dragged one of Tsai's inventions into the spotlight. He is the creator of the filter material inside most disposable N95 respirators. As the pandemic worsened, health care workers nationwide needed the masks to stay safe, which means there were shortages and massive price markups.

The shortage was so dire that it brought Tsai out of retirement to dive headfirst into solving the crisis.

Since mid-March, Tsai has been a worldwide force on two fronts: finding new ways to sterilize disposable respirators for reuse and rapidly scaling up their production.