Barbara S. Askins (born 1939) is an American chemist. She is best known for her invention of a method to enhance underexposed photographic negatives. This development was used extensively by NASA and the medical industry, and it earned Askins the title of National Inventor of the Year in 1978. [1]

Askins was among the first American women to make significant contributions in the field of space exploration, working for NASA during an exciting time leading up to the launch of the first Space Shuttle in 1981.

Jun 25, 2022 · Her invention aided NASA in the rendering of cosmological images and heavily influenced x-ray radiology in the medical field. Askins was born in Belfast, Tennessee in 1939, and she began her...

Read a biography of Barbara Askins, the NASA chemist who became the first female to win the IPO's Inventor of the Year Award.

ASKINS, Barbara, American physical chemist, b-1939. A scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA). In 1978 she was named US Inventor of the Year, for her method of photo-enhancement from faint negatives. The method was devised for under-exposed negatives such as x-rays, ancient family snaps, or photos such as taken by astronomers.

Nov 17, 2015 · When NASA hired chemist Barbara Askins to salvage the photos they were getting back from astronauts, they never expected she’d revolutionize how to restore details to underexposed photographs.

Jan 28, 2025 · Barbara S. Askins (born 1939) is an American chemist. She is best known for her invention of a method to enhance underexposed photographic negatives. This development was used extensively by NASA and the medical industry, and it earned Askins the title of National Inventor of the Year in 1978.

Sep 30, 2022 · Read on to learn how chemist Barbara Askins revolutionized both space and medical imagery with her invention. Who is Barbara Askins? Born in Tennessee in 1939, Askins began her career as a teacher. She didn’t return to college to complete her bachelor’s and master’s in chemistry until after she’d married and had two children.

Jan 27, 2017 · Barbara Askins was born in 1939 in Belfast, Tennessee. In 1979, Askins was the first individual women to be named National Inventor of the Year. She developed a method to enhance underexposed photographic negatives that were basically useless by using radiology.

Mar 4, 2023 · Barbara Askins doesn’t just run the 125th street Business Improvement District. She invented it. It was, she recalls, the first such district in an African-American neighborhood and, thirty years, later, she is now one of the longest serving leaders among the …