Dr. Patricia Era Bath became the first woman member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute

Dr. Patricia Era Bath 

 (November 4, 1942 – May 30, 2019)  

In 1960, at the age of eighteen years old, Bath won a "Merit Award" of Mademoiselle magazine for her contribution to the project.^[5]

Dr. Bath received her Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Manhattan's Hunter College in 1964.^[3] She then relocated to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University College of Medicine. Her freshman year at Howard coincided with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

She co-founded the Student National Medical Association and became its first woman president in 1965. At Howard, she was awarded a Children's Bureau National Government Fellowship Award to do research in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in the summer of 1967, where her research focused on pediatric surgery.^[13] 

The highlight of the award ceremony was the meeting of Earl Warren, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, at the US Embassy in Belgrade. Bath graduated with honors from Howard University College of Medicine in 1968. She was awarded the Edwin Watson Prize for Excellence in Ophthalmology by her mentor, Lois A. Young.