Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer, blue plaque unveiled in Notting Hill
Astronomer, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who discovered what stars are made of, has been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque at her teenage home in Notting Hill. The plaque, at number 70 Lansdowne Road, commemorates the place where her “remarkable journey towards becoming one of the most important scientific minds of the modern era began,” English Heritage said.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was described as a “determined and academically gifted student,” who “pursued her studies with serious intent from an early age” despite limited opportunities available to women at the time. It was while at the address in Notting Hill that she secured at scholarship to Newham College, Cambridge, putting her on a path to an “extraordinary” scientific career, that led her to “transform our understanding of the universe.”
“Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was a scientist of exceptional brilliance and determination,” Howard Spencer, Senior Historian at English Heritage, said. “This plaque marks the London home where, as a young woman, she began to develop the knowledge and ambition that would take her to the forefront of modern astronomy. Her story is not only one of groundbreaking discovery, but also of perseverance in the face of barriers that limited women in science.”
After leaving for the USA, Payne-Gaposchkin in astronomy from Harvard, with her “groundbreaking” 1925 thesis proposing that stars are made primarily of hydrogen and helium. This discovery would fundamentally change scientific understanding of the universe, though it was met with scepticism initially. Two years later she became the youngest ever astronomer to have a star of distinction next to her name in the publication American Men of Science.
Throughout her career, she would publish hundreds of scientific papers, becoming the first woman to be appointed a full professor at Harvard University, with her research on stellar atmosphere and variable stars making her one of the most significant astronomers of the twentieth century.
She joins Sir Arthur Eddington and the scientific couple, Walter and Annie Maunder, among the astronomers commemorated with a blue plaque.
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