The First Black Women in STEM in the National Inventors Hall of Fame

In 2022, Marian Croak and the late ophthalmologist Dr. Patricia Bath were inducted into the National Inventors of Hall of Fame. 

Almost 50 years after the founding of the NIHF, they were the first Black women to receive this honor. 

Almost 50 years. 

Introducing Marian Croak and Patricia Bath. 

Engineer Marian Croak has worked on advancing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies, converting voice data into digital signals that can be easily transmitted over the internet rather than using traditional phone lines. Her work has furthered the capabilities of audio and video conferencing, making it a practical reality in today’s world.

In 1982, Croak began her career at Bell Labs (later AT&T) with a position in the Human Factors research division, looking at how technology could be used to positively impact people’s lives. She subsequently went on to work on network engineering, where she contemplated the potential of digital telecommunications. Rather than use a traditional phone line for voice communication along with a digital method for internet data, she and her team thought both could be done digitally with the internet. Consequently, they focused on enabling voice traffic that could be both reliable and of high quality. Today, the widespread use of VoIP technology is vital for remote work and conferencing, as well as personal communications.

During her career, Croak and her team created a text-to-donate system for charitable organizations that first saw widespread use after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, which raised $130,000. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the technology raised $43 million in donations. Croak joined Google in 2014, where she now is vice president of engineering and leads the Research Center for Responsible AI and Human Centered Technology. She also has led a team bringing broadband to developing countries in Asia and Africa.

Croak attended Princeton University for her undergraduate studies and the University of Southern California for her doctorate, focusing on statistical analysis and social psychology. With more than 200 patents to her name, Croak also works on racial justice efforts at Google and continues her goal of encouraging women and young girls in engineering. (Source: National Inventors Hall of Fame)

Ten things you need to know about Marian Croak

Dr. Patricia Bath invented laserphaco, a new device and technique to remove cataracts. It performed all steps of cataract removal: making the incision, destroying the lens and vacuuming out the fractured pieces. Bath is recognized as the first Black woman physician to receive a medical patent.

After completing an ophthalmology residency at New York University, Bath completed a corneal transplant surgery fellowship at Columbia University. While a fellow, she was recruited by UCLA Medical Center and Charles R. Drew University to co-found an ophthalmology residency program at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital. She then began her career at UCLA, becoming the first woman ophthalmologist on the faculty of its prestigious Jules Stein Eye Institute. She was appointed assistant chief of the King-Drew-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program in 1974 and chief in 1983. Bath conceived her laserphaco device in 1981, published her first paper in 1987 and had her first U.S. patent issued in 1988. Her minimally invasive device was used in Europe and Asia by 2000.

When Bath interned in ophthalmology, she was one of the first to document that Black patients had double the rate of glaucoma and realized that the high prevalence of blindness among Black patients was due to a lack of access to ophthalmic care. In a seminal paper in 1976, she proposed the discipline of Community Ophthalmology, combining public health, community medicine, and clinical and daycare programs to test vision and screen threatening eye conditions in historically underserved communities. That same year, she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, designed to protect, preserve and restore sight through education, community service, research and eye care services. She also founded the Ophthalmic Assistant Training Program at UCLA, whose graduates worked on blindness prevention.

Bath received her bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Hunter College in 1964 and her medical degree from Howard University in 1968. Included among her many achievements, she was the first Black woman to complete a residency in ophthalmology at NYU and the first woman to chair an ophthalmology residency program in the United States at Drew-UCLA. She has been recognized as a laser pioneer, and among her numerous honors she has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, the Lemelson Center, the American Medical Women’s Association, the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the American Academy of Ophthalmology Museum of Vision & Ophthalmic Heritage, the Association of Black Women Physicians with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Ophthalmology Contributions, and by Alpha Kappa Alpha with its Presidential Award for Health and Medical Services.

Ten things you need to know about Dr. Patricia Bath

(Photos and bios for Marian Croak and Dr. Patricia Bath courtesy of the National Inventors Hall of Fame)