The late Dr. Patricia Bath is on the verge of making history. Two years after her passing, the Bath family has carried on her legacy by launching a campaign to get her inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. If elected, Bath would become the first Black woman to enter the hall of fame.
"In honor of Black History Month, the National Inventors Hall of Fame encourages the public to nominate an African-American inventor for consideration in their current class of inductees," Bath's official Twitter account tweeted.
Bath is a trailblazer in the world of ophthalmology. In 1975, she became the first Black woman to be appointed to UCLA's surgical staff. She also became the first woman to lead UCLA's post-graduate training program in ophthalmology. During her career, she went on to earn five U.S. patents.
Bath is well renowned for her work in blindness prevention. She became the first scientist to document the disproportionate rate of blindness among Black people and other racial groups. In 1976, she helped co-found the American Institute for Prevention of Blindness. Most notably, Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in 1986.
Over the years, Bath has been nominated for the National Inventors Hall of Fame eleven times. If inducted, she would be the only Black woman in the hall of fame out of 603 inductees. To learn more about the nomination process, click here.
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