In high school, students are taught about some of the most famous scientists in history and their amazing discoveries. However, there are some scientists who slip by the wayside and do not get the credit they deserve for their work. In the past, many women were not credited for their research and discoveries purely based on their gender. One such example is Cecilia Payne, who is one of the most notable female scientists in history yet is unheard of by most people. Her work is some of the most scientifically significant and outweighs that of many of her male peers.
Who Was Cecilia Payne?
Cecilia Payne was a British-American astronomer and physicist. She was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, England, on 7th December 1979. Despite excelling at school, her mother refused to waste money on her education, so Payne won a scholarship to Newnham College at Cambridge University. Initially, Payne studied botany, chemistry, and physics, but she dropped botany at the end of the first year.
Although she excelled at college, Cambridge would not give her a degree because it was not common for women to receive the honour at that time. The university did not start awarding degrees to women until 1948.
Due to being a woman and her academic skills not being recognized, Payne realized that her only option, if she remained in the UK, was to become a teacher, which did not appeal to her. Instead, she found a grant that would allow her to move to the United States, where she believed there would be more options for her.
Payne met Harlow Shipley, the Director of Harvard College. Shipley had just founded a graduate astronomy program. A fellowship also encouraged women to study at the university’s observatory.
Therefore, Cecilia Payne left the UK and emigrated to the United States in 1923. She became the second woman to study on the fellowship, following Adelaide Ames, who had started the previous year. Payne went on to become the first person to achieve a PhD in Astronomy from Radcliffe College.
Why Have People Not Heard of Her?
The primary reason that many people do not know about Cecilia Payne is that she was a woman, which is also the reason why many of her achievements went uncredited.
What Did Cecilia Payne Discover?
During her time at Harvard, Cecilia Payne completed some of her most notable work, although the scientific field did not initially recognize her discoveries. She wrote a doctoral thesis that identified the two main elements of the stars, including the Sun, as hydrogen and helium.
Astronomer Henry Norris Russell reviewed her thesis and discouraged her from publishing her work as it went against the general scientific conclusions of the time. Four years later, Russell conducted his own studies and came to the same conclusion as Payne. He published his work, giving Payne a brief mention of her previous work on the topic. As he was the first to publish the findings, he was initially credited with the discovery.
Payne continued to work at Harvard as a professor and also continued her own scientific studies. She made several more discoveries during her career, some of which she was not credited with until after her death. Some of Cecilia Payne’s discoveries and achievements include:
- The most abundant atom in the universe is hydrogen.
- Why stars fluctuate in temperature and why they differ in brightness when seen from Earth.
- She was the first woman promoted to full professor at Harvard.
The Legacy of Cecilia Payne’s Work
One of the main legacies of Payne’s work and achievements is that she opened doors for more women to establish successful careers in science. Many female scientists credit her as the inspiration behind their careers.
Cecilia Payne: Her Personal Life
Despite her busy and successful career, Cecilia Payne also enjoyed a happy home life. She met Russian-born astrophysicist Sergei I. Gaposchkin while touring Europe in 1933. They married in the United States a year later and settled in Lexington, Massachusetts. The couple went on to have two sons and a daughter, Edward, Katherine, and Peter. Payne died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 7th December 1979, aged 79.