Marga Faulstich conducted research for the Schott company for over four decades. She developed lightweight eyeglass lenses as well as numerous optical lenses for telescopes and microscopes.

Anyone who opened the Google search engine on June 16, 2018, saw the doodle - the varied Google logo - of a dark-haired woman surrounded by laboratory equipment and glass vessels, looking through two differently colored round glasses. With the illustration, the US company commemorated the glass researcher Marga Faulstich, who would have turned 103 on that day.

Born on June 16, 1915 in Weimar, Faulstich and her family moved to Jena in 1922. There she attended secondary school, from which she graduated with a high school diploma. In 1935 she began training as a research assistant at the Jena glassworks Schott. The company was one of the leading European manufacturers of optical and technical specialty glasses.

In her early years at Schott, Faulstich worked on thin glass coatings. In 1939, the research group she was part of filed a patent that has since served as the basis for the manufacture of sunglasses, anti-reflective lenses and glass facades. A further 40 patents used worldwide in which Faulstich was involved followed over time.

Faulstich's Career quickly advanced at Schott: from a research assistant, she rose to become a laboratory technician, then a scientific assistant and finally a self-employed researcher. After the death of her fiancé during the Second World War, she devoted herself exclusively to her professional life. In addition to her work at Schott, she began studying chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena in 1942. In the chaos of the war, however, she was unable to complete her studies with an exam.

After the Second World War, Jena, famous worldwide for its advanced glassmaking, was part of the Soviet occupation zone. Since the Western Allies wanted to benefit from the accumulated knowledge and skills of the glass industry, they brought 41 specialists and managers, including Faulstich, to the American occupation zone. As early as 1949, a provisional research laboratory was set up in Landshut, Bavaria.

After the expropriation of the Schott factory in Jena in 1948 and the division of Germany the following year, the entrepreneur Erich Schott (1891-1989) negotiated with the city of Mainz about relocating the glassworks to the site of a former slaughterhouse. A new Schott factory began production there in May 1952.

Faulstich became the first female manager at Schott in Mainz. She researched and developed new glasses, especially special glasses for microscopes and telescopes, and in addition to her research work, she managed a crucible melting plant for 16 years. She received international recognition in particular for the invention of the lightweight Schwerflint 64 (SF 64) spectacle lens. Instead of the heavy metal lead, it contains titanium and therefore weighs significantly less. The US Industrial Research Incorporation counted SF 64 among the 100 most important innovations of 1973 and awarded Faulstich the Industrial Research 100 medal for it. In total, over 300 types of optical glasses can be traced back to the inventiveness of this remarkable researcher.

After 44 years of service at Schott, Marga Faulstich retired in 1979. She died at the age of 82 on February 1, 1998 in Mainz.