Biography

Margaret Burbidge

Margaret Burbidge was born in 1919 in Davenport and is currently still alive. SHe attended the University of London and got her Ph.D. there in 1943. She began to research galaxies by linking a spectrograph to telescopes. In 1951, she went to the United States to the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin where she had a grant. There she studied B stars and and galaxy structure. In 1953, she returned to England and researched alongside her husband, Fred Hoyle and William Alfred Fowler and came up with the B2FH theory. This theory showed how all of the elements except the very lightest are produced by nuclear reactions in stellar interiors. For this finding, they received the Warner Prize in 1959. Burbidge was admitted to the Mount Wilson Observatory, pretending to be her husband's assistance. When they realized, they eventually let her stay and continue her research. In the 1960's Burbidge obtained spectra of spiral galaxies. From these, the velocities of the ionized gas clouds in their nuclei and disks were measured. She, in collaboration with Geoff Burbidge and with Kevin Prendergast, ultimately deduced rotational properties and masses for 50 or so spiral galaxies. In 1972, she obtained directorship of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which she held for 15 months. She became one of the foremost attackers of discrimination against women in the field of astronomy. In 1976, she became president of the American Astronomy Society. For the past 15 years, Burbidge has continued her observational research programs at the Lick Observatory of the University of California. 

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Burbidge

http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/bruceMedalists/BurbidgeM/index.html

http://www.cirs-tm.org/researchers/researchers.php?id=150