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Born Richard Raskind, a boy, Renée Richards became an LGBT icon after winning a landmark case against the US Tennis Association and acquiring the right to compete in women’s tennis events in spite of her sex-change operation. She is also a qualified ophthalmologist and has trained the likes of Martina Navratilova.
Ophthalmologist Patricia Bath is remembered for her pathbreaking invention of the Laserphaco Probe, which made laser cataract surgery possible. The first Black female surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center and the first female faculty staff of the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, she dedicated her life to curing blindness.
Part of the Mayo medical family of the U.S., Charles Horace Mayo had established the Mayo Clinic with his brother William James Mayo and others. He specialized in varied medical fields, mastering neurosurgery, goitre surgery, cataract operations, and other procedures. He later served the U.S. Army surgical team.
Finnish-born Rebecka Belldegrun is not only an ophthalmic surgeon but also a billionaire businesswoman. While she initially launched a real-estate company, she later served as the CEO of the investment firm BellCo Capital LLC. She has also previously invested in the biotech and hotel industries and heads several corporate boards.
American ophthalmologist, inventor, surgeon, entertainer, jazz-musician, and Broadway producer Charles Kelman, called the father of phacoemulsification, is best-known for inventing phacoemulsification and several other surgical techniques and instruments used in cataract surgery. He received the National Medal of Technology from the then US President George H. W. Bush, the Lasker Award and was inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Ophthalmologist and Johns Hopkins University professor Arnall Patz was the first to find out the link between the oxygen used in incubators and blindness in infants. The Lasker Award-winning doctor also worked on laser treatment of retinal ailments, thus developing one of the world’s first argon lasers.
