by 
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was born on May 10th, 1900 in Wendover, England. Cecilia Payne was interested in science as a young woman, however, she was not sure which science excited her the most. Payne won a scholarship to Cambridge University where all her expenses were paid for. At Cambridge, Payne began to explore different scientific fields and ultimately decided that physics and astronomy were for her. At Cambridge, Payne attended a lecture given by Arthur Eddington who was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. In his lecture, Eddington spoke about his recent expedition to observe the solar eclipse in 1919, an observation which proved Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to be correct. The lecture given by Eddington at Cambridge University really interested Payne and she ultimately decided that astronomy was a field that she wished to pursue. Payne mentioned that the lecture changed her world view: “The result was a complete transformation of my world picture. When I returned to my room I found that I could write down the lecture word for word.” At this moment, Payne had a clear idea of what she wanted to study within science.
After Eddington’s lecture, the Cambridge Observatory held an open night for the public that Payne attended. At the event, she asked many questions and her interest in astronomy was apparent. At the event, when she spoke with Professor Eddington and told him that she wanted to become an astronomer, he recommended that Payne read several books about the topic, however the eager student had already read them all. Eddington offered her to use the Cambridge Observatory’s library where she gained access to a plethora of astronomical journals.
Cecilia Payne went on to finish her studies at Cambridge University, however she was not awarded a degree from the University due to her sex. Cambridge University did not give degrees to women until 1948. Despite these sexist policies, Payne was never discouraged and did whatever it took to become an expert in the field of astronomy. Payne understood that women in England had a small chance at advancing to a profession beyond a teaching role, so in 1923, she moved to the United States where she lived for the rest of her life.
In the United States, Payne was introduced to Harlow Shapely, director of the Harvard College Observatory. Shapely had just established a graduate program in astronomy and Payne was able to participate thanks to a fellowship program that encouraged women to study astronomy at Harvard’s observatory. Payne was only the second student on the fellowship. In 1925, Payne became the first person to receive a Ph.D. in astronomy from the Radcliffe College of Harvard University. In her doctoral dissertation, Payne concluded that stars were primarily composed of helium and particularly hydrogen, making hydrogen the most abundant element in the universe.
Harlow Shapely shared Payne’s thesis with professor Henry Russell at the University of Princeton. Russell ultimately discredited the work of Cecilia Payne because it contradicted traditional scientific consensus that the Sun and Earth had similar compositions. In order to protect her career, Payne inserted a statement in her thesis that the calculated abundances of helium and hydrogen in stars were probably not real, even though she knew that her findings were precise. Years later, astronomer Otto Struve hailed Payne’s work as “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy.” Henry Russell also realized that Payne’s work and discoveries were accurate when he came to the same conclusions in his own work. In 1929, Russell published his discoveries in a paper that acknowledged Payne’s earlier work and discoveries, however Henry Russell was often credited with the discovery even though Payne discovered it first. In 1976, Cecilia Payne was awarded the Henry Norris Russell prize from the American Astronomical Society for her groundbreaking discovery many years prior.
Despite the sexism displayed by Cambridge University, where she was not even given a degree for her studies, and by her colleagues who discredited her discoveries until years later when a male astronomer came to the same conclusions, Payne never gave up her passion for astronomy. Cecilia Payne spent the rest of her career as a professor at Harvard where she acted as an advocate and role model for women who wanted to pursue a career in astronomy. Payne paved the way for young women to enter the field of astronomy and encouraged many women to study astronomy at the Harvard College Observatory. While Cecilia Payne was an important scientific figure in the twentieth century for her remarkable discoveries, more importantly, Payne blazed the trail for young women to pursue astronomy and her legacy lives on today.
Sources:
https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/cecilia-payne-profile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Payne-Gaposchkin