VILLARUZ, Magdalena, Filipino inventor and entrepreneur, b-1934. In the 1960s she designed and produced a machine called the Turtle Power Tiller, a tractor with a float. It is capable of tilling soil in the most rain-sodden fields (rice-paddies). Magdalena now heads a large company that manufactures and markets the machine in many tropical countries.  A prolific inventor, she is the holder of many patents for agricultural equipment. In addition, she is very active in inventor organisations in the Philippines, and was the first woman to win the Philippines Inventor of the Year Award (1986). Then in 1995 she was awarded the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s gold medal, in recognition of being the most outstanding woman inventor in the Philippines.

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