Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An unsung star of astronomy

It is an irony that most of the science students do not even know about this great lady. Cecilia Payne was raised in a humble background so much that her mother refused to spend money on her college education, that of course did not deter her and she went on to won a scholarship to Cambridge.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin completed her studies at Cambridge in the 1920s when degrees were not given to women. so she said to heck with that and moved to the United States to work. She later traveled to America where she received her Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe University. Her thesis was hailed as “undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy.” She became the first person to determine that stars are primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, when everyone else thought they were made of iron .she was denied professorship for 18 years, just because she was a woman. She went on to chair the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Her life was spent in academia at Harvard, she continued to advocate for science and became a role model for women wanting to enter astrophysics.

Everyone ought to know about the strong lady who beat all odds and gave us the window to look through space into stars.