Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; – ) was a British-American astronomer and astrophysicist. In her 1925 doctoral thesis she proposed that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected by leading astrophysicists, including Henry Norris Russell, because it contradicted the science of the time, which held that no significant elemental differences distinguished the Sun and Earth. Independent observations eventually proved that she was correct.

Overcoming barriers for female scientists – Payne did not receive a degree from Cambridge despite completing her studies – her work on the cosmic makeup of the universe and the nature of variable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics. She was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society while still a student at Cambridge and later became the first recipient of the American Astronomical Society’s prestigious Annie J. Cannon award. Her success also opened the door for countless female astronomers, including her Harvard colleague, Helen Sawyer Hogg, and in 1956, she was appointed Harvard’s first female Professor and female Department Chair. Provided by Wikipedia