Patricia Bath (1942 – 2019) – Cataract Laserphaco probe
Patricia Bath was an academic and ophthalmologist who invented the process of removing cataracts using a laser beam device known as the Laserphaco Probe. She was born in Harlem in 1942 to an immigrant father from Trinidad and a mother who was a descendant of enslaved Africans and Cherokee Native Americans.
Bath achieved many impressive milestones in her career. She was the first woman appointed to the ophthalmology faculty at UCLA and the first African American woman to serve as a surgeon staff at the UCLA Medical Center. Additionally, she was the first African American to be a Jules Stein Eye Institute member, lead a post-graduate ophthalmology training program, and complete a residency in ophthalmology at New York University. Finally, she was the first African American woman to hold a patent for a medical invention.