Wonderful Scientist Wednesday
Dr. Patricia Bath
In the height of the Civil Rights movement, Patricia Bath was a high schooler featured on the cover of the New York Times for her cancer research.
As a child raised in Harlem, Patricia’s parents knew she was bound for science. Patricia’s father was an immigrant from Trinidad and the first black man to work as a motorist on the New York City subway. Her mother, Gladys Bath, worked as a housekeeper and worked hard to save money for Patricia’s education.
Early on Gladys bought Patricia a chemistry set which inspired her daughter to love science. In school, Patricia was a quick learner and she graduated high school after only two years! High school clearly was not challenging enough for Patricia as her brief cancer research yielded impressive results. As a teenager, Patricia discovered a mathematical formula to predict the growth rate of cancerous tumors in the body — thereby earning publication in a peer-reviewed journal before even entering college!
Patricia went on to become one of the brightest scientific minds in ophthalmology. First, she studied chemistry at Hunter College, before going on to Howard University School of Medicine, and later Columbia University. In 1973 she was the first African American woman to complete a residency in ophthalmology! Her research culminated in the creation of a patent for a new more effective, and less painful method to remove cataracts, blinding build-ups on the eye. With this new invention, Patricia became the first African American female doctor to receive a patent!
Patricia was also an accessibility and Civil Rights activist. While researching blindness, Patricia learned that black people experience sight loss more frequently than other patients so she worked to help minority communities. With her invention of laserphaco probing, she was able to improve the eyesight of patients who had been blind for over 30 years! President Barack Obama would later name her as an advisor to assist in making websites more accessible to blind people.
Although she passed away in 2019, Dr. Patricia Bath totally changed the field of ophthalmology. Her patent for laser cataract surgery made her not only a pioneering physician but also an internationally renowned black businesswoman and inventor!
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