Patricia Bath

An ophthalmologist and humanitarian,

Dr. Patricia Bath is perhaps most well known for being the inventor of laser cataract surgery. She was the first Black resident of ophthalmology at NYU and the first Black female surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. She is also the first Black woman to receive a patent for a medical purpose, and she held five patents. Dr. Bath also founded the non-profit American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness and earned her MD at Howard University, graduating with honors. Her father was an immigrant from Trinidad, and her mother was a descendant of African slaves and Cherokee Native Americans. 

Dr. Bath was a National Science Foundation scholar by the time she was in high school, and her cancer research made the front page of the New York Times. She was a published medical researcher as a teen, concluding that cancer was a catabolic disease and discovered a math equation that helped predict cancer growth. She was also the founder and first woman president of the Student National Medical Association. Dr. Bath won a number of awards, and many children’s books, even a play, have been written about her. You can read more about her at the link below, or listen to her speak here.