Even though it’s been well established for almost five decades, the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) didn’t previously contain any Black women. That is, until recently.
The organization announced this week that engineer Marian Croak and late ophthalmologist Patricia Bath would be among the next group of inductees into the organization.
Only around 600 other innovators, both alive and dead, have received this distinction before these two Black women.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame has 48 female honorees and 30 black inductees.
“Innovation drives the worldwide economy forward and improves our quality of life. This is especially apparent given what we have experienced over the past 18 months,” Michael Oister, the NIHF’s CEO, said in a statement. “It’s why at the National Inventors Hall of Fame we are privileged to honor our country’s most significant inventors, who are giving the next generation the inspiration to innovate, create, and solve current and future problems.”
Croak and Bath will be inducted into the Hall of Fame with the other 22 people who were inducted last year, making up the Class of 2022. In early May, ceremonies will be held in Alexandria, Va., and Washington, D.C., honoring and inducting all 29 members.
Marian R. Croak, PhD
Dr. Croak is a renowned innovator in the areas of voice and data transmission, holding over 200 patents. She is most known for creating Voice Over Internet Protocols (VoIP), which transforms your voice into a digital signal and allows you to make a call straight from a computer device.
When Marion was a child in New York City, she was infatuated with the work that plumbers, electricians, and the other professionals who would come into her home when things broke. This early interest paved the way for her desire to be able to repair things or make life better.
Her high school math and science instructors, as well as her father, who built her a home chemical equipment, encouraged her to seek a STEM profession.
Croak earned her bachelor’s degree at Princeton and her PhD in social psychology and quantitative analysis at the University of Southern California.
Her career took off when she joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1982. For more than three decades, she worked in different roles in voice and data communication. She was motivated to create technology that would transform the internet after predicting that the Internet will replace wire technology.
She advanced technologies in text messaging on cellular phones while working his way up the ladder at AT&T Labs. Croak is noted for creating the system that enables individuals to make charitable contributions through text message.
Dr. Patricia E. Bath
Dr. Bath was born in the Harlem to Rupert Bath, the city’s first Black subway motorman, and Gladys Bath, a housewife and domestic worker who saved money for her children’s education.
Bath’s family supported her to pursue her academic aspirations. She learned about the joys of travel and the importance of learning about various cultures from her father, a former merchant marine and occasional newspaper journalist. Her mother sparked her interest in science by purchasing a chemistry set for her.
In 1973, she became the first African American to complete an ophthalmology residency.
Bath then became the first female faculty member of UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute’s Department of Ophthalmology two years later.
Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976, which declared that “vision is a fundamental human right.”
She invented the Laserphaco Probe in 1986, which improved cataract therapy.
She became the first African American female doctor to acquire a medical patent when she invented the device in 1988.
Professionally, as her career was focused as an ophthalmologist and laser scientist, she went further and became into an innovative research scientist and advocate for blindness prevention, treatment, and cure.