Dr. Shirley Jackson is the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D.

from MIT in
nuclear physics. She is the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first woman
and first African-American to hold this position. Her inventions include developments in the
portable fax, touch tone telephone, solar cell, and the fiber optic cables used to provide clarity
in overseas telephone calls. She has also helped make possible Caller ID and Call Waiting.
Dr. Patricia Bath is an ophthalmologist. She was the first African American resident at
New York University. In 1975, Bath became the first African-American woman surgeon at
the UCLA Medical Center and the first woman faculty member at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye
Institute. She has become famous for the invention Laserphaco Probe, a surgical tool that
uses a laser to vaporize cataracts. After using the Laserphaco Probe to remove a cataract, the
patients lens can be removed and a replacement lens inserted. She received her first patent
for the device in May, 1988, followed by another in December, 1998. She holds four U.S.
patents in all for innovations related to the Laserphaco.
Janet Emerson Bashen is the first African American female to hold a patent for a software
invention. The development was LinkLine, a web-based application for Equal Employment
Opportunity (EEO) claims intake and tracking, claims management, document management
and numerous reports. It was patented in 2006.