Marie Maynard Daly

Marie Maynard Daly (born 16 April 1921 in Corona, Queens, New York City, died 28 October 2003), who was awarded a doctorate from Columbia University in 1947, was the first African American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. Source

Patricia Bath

Patricia Era Bath (born November 4, 1942, Harlem, New York) is an ophthalmologist credited as the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention. Bath received the patent in 1988 for an "Apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses", a version of a device designed to help remove cataracts with a fiberoptic laser. Bath graduated with a baccalaureate degree from Hunter College in 1964, then from Howard University School of Medicine in 1968.

She was the first female ophthalmologist at UCLA's prestigious Jules Stein Eye Institute and the first female African American surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center.

Patricia E. Bath, an ophthalmologist and laser scientist, is an innovative research scientist and advocate for blindness prevention, treatment, and cure. Her accomplishments include the invention of a new device and technique for cataract surgery known as laserphaco, the creation of a new discipline known as "community ophthalmology", and appointment as the first woman chair of ophthalmology in the United States, at Drew-UCLA in 1983. Continue reading here