What can women who code learn from Cecilia Payne?
- Peers play a crucial role in success
- Nevertheless, work defines the role
- Contributions to the field define greatness
“I was to blame for not having pressed my point. I had given in to authority when I believed I was right. ... I note it here as a warning to the young. If you are sure of your facts, you should defend your position.” ― Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections
Before Copernicus published ideas to the contrary, people thought the world was central to the solar system. Astronomers thought stars were composed of the same materials as Earth when Cecilia Payne began studying stars in the early 1900’s. Like Copernicus before her, Cecilia’s work would fly in the face of these accepted ideas about the universe and then go on to change humankind’s understanding of the cosmos forever.
Peers play a crucial role in success
Part of Cecilia’s success lies in the influence of those who surrounded her.
After studying astronomy at Cambridge, she did not receive a degree because only one gender was awarded degrees at that time [1]. However, during her studies at Cambridge, she came across the work of an astronomer named Meghnad Saha. Meghnad Saha had recently established that spectral sequences corresponded to quantifiable stellar temperatures with an equation relating the ionization states of an element in a star to temperatures [2]. This work inspired Cecilia and became the solid ground on which Cecilia could base her own future theories.
At Harvard, Annie Jump Cannon and a team of researchers were sorting the spectra of several hundred thousand stars [3]. Based on visual data like brightness, size, and color the team established seven distinct classes of stars. At the time no research could make sense of this ordering of the stellar spectral classes, but then Cecilia came along and produced work relating spectra to temperature. This made sense of Cannon’s ordering as a sequence of decreasing temperatures. Together their work created a plot of luminosity versus spectral class of the stars, called the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, one of the most powerful analytical tools in stellar astrophysics [5].
The star classification efforts of the Harvard College Observatory team and progressive work in thermal ionization by Meghnad Saha gave Cecilia two pieces of the puzzle for describing the spectra of stars relative to star temperatures and material compositions.
Nevertheless, work defines the role
Cecilia’s career began at Cambridge in England. However, she immediately hit a glass ceiling in the astronomy classes there [1]. By immediately rejecting her contributions on the basis of her gender, Cambridge lost her valuable skills and future contributions to a place that would accept her: Harvard in the United States.
Though her thesis was destined to go on to great success, her Harvard advisor’s initial reaction was to reject it because it did not match the groupthink of the astronomy department and was approached with assumptions from peers that it would be flawed [5]. After such a hard let down at the end of her doctorate studies, Cecilia got another kick in the ovaries when she then was blocked from pursuing the position of a Harvard professor because of her gender and could not continue her career alongside her peers.
Cast down into low position where her salary was classified under “equipment expenses” [4], Cecilia nevertheless continued with her work and made her thesis into book. It was this book, Stellar Atmospheres, that was finally accepted by the astronomy community [5]. Her peers and former advisor realized that her research and conclusions were fundamentally correct despite their feelings about it and biases against her.
Even after the delayed but overwhelming success of her doctorate work, Cecilia was still not allowed to become a professor because she did not have the preferred gender. The director of the observatory at Princeton University referred to Payne as the best candidate in America to be his successor in 1934, but wrote that she “alas, is a woman!” [4]. Nevertheless, she diligently continued to publish astronomy books. As soon as the Harvard College Observatory got a new director 31 years later, the change in leadership immediately led to cascading changes that resulted in Cecilia receiving the much deserved promotion to professor [4].
Contributions to the field define greatness
Cecilia Payne derived the quantities of elements in stars and the universe by studying their stellar spectra. Her thesis has since famously been described by astronomers as “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy” [1, 3, 4, 5].
Cecilia’s work revolutionized astronomy by proving that stars are predominantly made of helium and hydrogen [1] and after gaining acceptance, her discoveries immediately reached far in impact. Concurrent work categorizing the spectra of stars could stand on new sound science, allowing for 225,000 classified stars to fit on a temperature scale and create one of the most powerful analytical tools in stellar astrophysics. By publishing work that both confirmed ongoing projects and gave grounds for new projects to stand on, Cecilia became a vital point of growth in the understanding of the universe.
Cecilia was a game-changing astronomer because she contributed directly to the advancement of the field of astronomy. She produced this work without the entitlement given to the preferred gender of her field, advancing in positions as soon as blocks against her were lifted. Imagine how much more she could have contributed to science if there had not been enforced cultural limits working hard to slow her down.
She is known and remembered for paving the way to modern astrophysics and establishing our current understanding of the universe’s composition.
#rememberHer
[1] Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics, Copyright © CWP and Regents of the University of California 1995–1998. http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/Payne-Gaposchkin,_Cecilia_Helena@861234567.html
[2] Saha and His Formula, G Venkataraman. Universities Press. 1995
[3] Annie Jump Cannon. Biography.com, Astronomer, Scientist (1863–1941) https://www.biography.com/people/annie-jump-cannon-9236960
[4] HowStuffWorks\Science\Dictionary\Famous Scientists\Astronomers. http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/famous-scientists/astronomers/cecilia-helena-payne-gaposchkin-info.htm
[5] Profile: Cecilia Payne and the Composition of the Stars https://www.amnh.org/explore/resource-collections/cosmic-horizons/profile-cecilia-payne-and-the-composition-of-the-stars/
