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. Askins process was employed by NASA, as well as by the medical industry in the development of X-rays. NASA was able to use this process to gather data from underexposed images such as those from deep space. Within the medical industry, physicians were able to read X-rays that were previously unreadable, and, in addition, patients were exposed reduced amounts of radiation. Askins received a patent for her invention in 1978. This invention continues to be used extensively by NASA in their research and development departments.

Further information about Barbara Askins can be found at the following websites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Askins
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/16384897768
http://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/barbara-askins