Astrophysics

Contributions Publications Honors Additional  Information

Cecelia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin 1900-1979

Detailed study and analysis of the spectra of the difficult case of high luminosity stars.

Observations, with S. I. Gaposchkin, and analyses of variable stars laid the basis for all subsequent work on them and their use as indicators of galactic structure.

Important studies of the spectra of galactic novae.

Some Important Publications

Books

Stellar atmospheres, The Observatory, 1925; Harvard College Observatory, Monographs, no. 1. This book is her PH.D.thesis which was submitted to Radcliffe College in 1925.

The stars of high luminosity, Published for The Observatory by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, London, 1930.

Variable stars, The Observatory, Cambridge, 1938.

Variable stars and galactic structure, University of London, Athlone Press, London, 1954.

The galactic novae, North-Holland Publishing Company: Interscience Publishers, New York, 1957.

Some popular texts

Stars in the making, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1952.

Stars and clusters, Harvard University Press, Cambrdige, 1979.

Honors

Henry Norris Russell Prize, American Astronomical Society 1976 -- "to
commemorate a lifetime of preeminence in astronomical research, and as such is awarded to senior astronomers".

Elected member of Royal Astronomical Society while a student at Cambridge 1923
National Research Council Fellowship, Harvard College Observatory
Member, American Astronomical Society 1924
Annie Jump Cannon Prize (first winner) 1934
Member, American Philosophical Society 1936
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1943
Award of Merit, Radcliffe College 1952
Rittenhouse Medal, Franklin Institute 1961
Planet 1974CA named in her honor in 1974 [1O N20]
Starred in American Men of Science [7 MWR1]

Honorary degrees (D. Sc.) [1O N20]:

Wilson College 1942
Smith College 1943
Western College 1951
Colby College 1958
Women's Medical College of Philadelphia 1961

Jobs/Positions

1925-27 Research Fellow, Harvard College Observatory
1927-38 Technical Assistant to Harlow Shapley, Harvard College Observatory
1938-56 Phillips Astronomer, Harvard
1956-65 Professor and Chair of the Department of Astronomy, Harvard
1966 Emeritus Professor, Harvard
1967-79 Member, Staff, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Education

B.A. Newnham College of Cambridge University 1923
Ph.D. Radcliffe College 1925 (Harvard College Observatory)

Sources

[1 CLH], [1O N20], [6A AMS], [6B AMS], [7 MWR1], [12D GKS], [15 PGA], [15A PGA], [17 MWR2], [27 LDO], [33J LSG], [39G CBY], [51 MJB]

Additional Information/Comments

Payne-Gaposchkin completed her studies at Cambridge but was not awarded a degree as Cambridge did not grant women degrees at that time.[1O N20]

Harlow Shapley, the director of the Harvard College Observatory, began a graduate program in astronomy. This was made possible by a fellowship to encourage women to study at the Observatory. The first student was Adelaide Ames in 1922. The second student was Payne-Gaposchkin in 1923. [15A PGA]

Payne-Gaposchkin's discovery that hydrogen was the most abundant substance in the universe is not officially or generally credited to her, this discovery having been made when she was a 25-year old doctoral candidate at Harvard. [1O N20]

Dissertation: Application of the theory of thermal ionization (Saha's equation) to the study of temperatures and chemical abundance in stars. A Princeton astronomer, Henry Norris Russell, convinced her to alter her views. He later published results similar to hers. Unsöld is often creditied with this discovery. [1O N20]

In 1925, Payne-Gaposchkin was the first women to get a Ph.D. from the Harvard College Observatory. [12D GKS]

In the period after 1925, women were still discriminated against in astronomy but gradually moved away from the research areas defined as women's work. [12D GKS]

Payne-Gaposchkin's dissertation (Monograph No. 1 at the Harvard College Observatory) was "undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy." Otto Struve and Velta Zebergs, Astronomy of the 20th Century (New York: Macmillan, 1962): 220. [12D GKS]

Payne-Gaposchkin was the first woman to receive the Henry Norris Russell Prize from the AAS. [1O N20]

By 1930, Payne-Gaposchkin earned only $2,300 a year. She served as a technical assistant to H. Shapley, director of Harvard College Observatory, for 1927 - 1938. [33P LSG]

Payne-Gaposchkin's work at Harvard College Observatory was unofficial and unacknowledged until 1938 when she was granted the title of astronomer. She later asked to have this title changed to Phillips Astronomer. None of the courses she taught at Harvard were recorded in the catalogue until 1945. [1O N20]

Payne-Gaposchkin was the first woman appointed to a full professorship and the first woman to chair a department at Harvard. [1O N20]

Payne-Gaposchkin was married to astrophysicist, Serge Gaposchkin. Jessie Greenstein, astronomer at the California Institute of Technology recalls that "she was charming and humorous" and her daughter remembers her as "...an inspired seamstress, an inventive knitter, and a voracious reader." [7 MWR1]

Payne-Gaposchkin helped forge a path for other women scientists because of her strong fight against sex discrimination at Harvard College Observatory and by her example, which discredited the notion that women could not excel in the field of astronomy. [1O N20]

"At Shapley's suggestion, Payne-Gaposchkin then undertook a study of photographic stellar photometry. The time-consuming attention to detail resquired by the establishment of standard stellar magnitudes and colors caused Payne-Gaposchkin to chafe under this assignment. Although recognizing the value of photometry, she felt it consumed too much of her time. Nevertheless, this work led her to the study of variable stars, the field for which she is best known and to which she devoted so many years. Some of the variable-star studies were in collaboration with her husband, Sergei I. Gaposchkin." --Elske van Panhuys Smith [1980A PT]

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