Marian Croak’s father built her a chemistry set to give her an outlet for her scientific curiosity. Marian went on to graduate from Princeton University and would later earn a Ph.D. in quantitative analysis from the University of Southern California. Marian worked on advancing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies, converting voice data into digital signals that can be easily transmitted over the internet rather than using traditional phone lines. Her work has furthered the capabilities of audio and video conferencing, making it a practical reality in today’s world.
She currently holds over 200 patents and is a vice president at Google.
Croak also works on racial justice efforts at Google, and continues to mentor women and young girls in engineering.
As one of the first-ever Black women to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Croak recognizes the importance of diversity in a historically homogenous industry.
“I find that it inspires people when they see someone who looks like themselves on some dimension, and I’m proud to offer that type of representation,” Croak said in her interview with Google. “I want people to understand that it may be difficult but that they can overcome obstacles and that it will be so worth it.”