Barbara Askins

barbara askins

Inventor of the improvement for astronomical and geological photos

Barbara S. Askins

Who was she?

award

In 1978, the Association for Advancement of Inventions and Innovations named her the national Inventor of the Year. She was the first woman to be selected for this title.

She was born in 1939, in Tennessee. She began her career as a teacher but she returned to school to become a chemist, earning a bachelor's degree in Chemistry after having a son and a daughter, waiting for them until they entered school. Later she will accepted a position as a chemist for the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1975.

invention

underexposed photographics

In 1978, she came up with a way of increasing the quality of the images using radioactive materials. The method she developed used radiology to help improve the quality of underexposed negatives

If a photo is too dark, it is underexposed. The transparent areas will appear black on the print, but the brightest highlight areas will still have detail.

Received U.S. patent for a “Method of Obtaining Intesified Image from Developed Photographic Films and Plates.” She was the only inventor on the project.