Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: The making of an astrophysicist, 1983.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: The making of an astrophysicist, 1983.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/81483336

Peggy Kidwell considers three questions in this biographical essay: how Payne-Gaposchkin's education prepared her for a career in science; why she left England for the Harvard College Observatory; and what she did after she arrived there. In answering these questions, Kidwell describes Payne-Gaposchkin's early education; her scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge University, and studies in botany, chemistry and physics there; her perceived rebuff as a student by Ernest Rutherford and her subsequent interest in astronomy and astrophysics, sparked by a lecture by Arthur S. Eddington; her decision to leave England because of the lack of professional opportunities and the greater demand in the U.S.A.; her work with Harlow Shapley; research in stellar spectra and her Ph.D. thesis in stellar atmospheres. The essay includes four pages of end notes.

14 pp.

American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8264312

Related Entities

There are 6 Entities related to this resource.

Gaposchkin, Cecilia Helena Payne, 1900-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f010vf (person)

Celilia Helena Payne Gaposchkin (1900-1979) taught astronomy at Harvard. She earned her AB at Newnham College, Cambridge University in 1923 and a Ph.D. from Radcliffe College in 1925. She began working at the Harvard Observatory in 1923. She was the Phillips Astronomer at the Harvard Observatory in 1938, Professor of Astronomy, 1956-1966, Chair of the Astronomy Department, 1956-1960 (the first female department Chair at Harvard) and Phillips Professor of Astronomy, Emerita, from 1967; at the tim...

Rutherford, Ernest, 1871-1937

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zk5g6r (person)

Ernest Rutherford was a British physicist. From the description of Correspondence, 1890-1937. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 173465954 From the guide to the Ernest Rutherford correspondence, 1890-1937, 1890-1937, (American Philosophical Society) Ernest Rutherford was a physicist and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1904. From the description of Letters, 1904-1924, to Bertram Borden Boltwood. (American Philosophical Society Library). W...

Newnham College

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kd634j (corporateBody)

Shapley, Harlow, 1885-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pn96xk (person)

Astronomer (galaxies, photometry, spectroscopy) and administrator. Astronomer, Mount Wilson Observatory, 1914-1921; director, Harvard Observatory, 1921-1952; on the astronomy faculty at Harvard from 1952. From the description of Papers [microform], 1910-1923. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 80523781 Harlow Shapley (1885-1972) was an astronomer. Shapley served as director of the Harvard College Observatory and was a professor at Harvard University, eventually he became the Pai...

Eddington, Arthur Stanley, Sir, 1882-1944

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63x86jr (person)

Astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society. From the description of Papers. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 83660356 From the description of Letters. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82863606 From the description of Papers, 1905-1928. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78824422 Educated at Owen's College, Manchester and Trinity College, Cambridge. Senior Wrangler, 1904. Smith's Prizeman, 1907. Chief Assistant, Royal Observatory (Greenwich), 1906-1913. Plumian Prof...

Kidwell, Peggy A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k37h57 (person)