Patricia Bath, a scientist, a physician and an inventor.

Source: sciencecontrol.com/patricia-bath

Patricia Bath is a Scientist, physician and an inventor. She was born on November 4, 1942, in Harlem, New York, to Rupert Bath, the first black motorman for the New York City subway system, and Gladys, a housewife and domestic worker who used her salary to save money for her children’s educations. Bath was encouraged by her family to pursue academic interests. Her father, a former Merchant Marine and an occasional newspaper columnist, taught Bath about the wonders of travel and the value of exploring new cultures. Her mother piqued the young girl’s interest in science by buying her a chemistry set.

As a result Bath worked hard on her intellectual pursuits and, at the age of 16, she became one of only a few students to attend a cancer research workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The program head, Dr. Robert Bernard, was so impressed with Bath’s discoveries during the project that he incorporated her findings in scientific paper he presented at a conference. The publicity surrounding her discoveries earned Bath the Mademoiselle magazine 1960 Merit Award.

Bath graduated from high school in only two years, and headed to Hunter College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964. She then attended Howard University to pursue a medical degree. Bath graduated with honors from Howard in 1968, and accepted an internship at Harlem Hospital shortly afterward. The next year she also began pursuing a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University. Through her studies there, she discovered that African-Americans were twice as likely to suffer from blindness, than other patients to which she attended, and eight times more likely to develop glaucoma. Her researched led to her development of a system of community ophthalmology, which increased the amount of eye care given to those who were unable to afford treatment.

In 1973, Bath became the first African-American to complete a residency in ophthalmology. She moved to California the next year to work at UCLA and Charles R. Drew University as an assistant professor of surgery. The following year she became the first woman faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute. In 1976, she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, which established that “eyesight is a basic human right,” and by 1983 she had also helped create the Opthalmology Residency Training program at UCLA-Drew. She also chaired the program, becoming the first woman in the country to hold such a position.

In 1981 she began work on her most well-known invention: the Laserphaco Probe. Harnessing laser technology, the device created a less painful and more precise treatment of cataracts. With her invention, Bath was able to help restore the sight of those who had been blind for more than 30 years. She received patent for the device in 1988, and also holds patents in Japan, Canada and Europe.

In 1993, Bath retired from UCLA Medical Center and became an honorary member of their medical staff. She is a strong advocate of telemedicine, which uses technology to provide medical services in remote areas. That same year, she was elected as a Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine