Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin (May 10, 1900 – December 7, 1979) was a British-American astronomer and astrophysicist.
Early life[change]
Payne was born in Wendover, England. In 1919, she won a scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge University. She studied botany, physics, and chemistry. She was not given a degree because women were not given degrees by Cambridge until 1948. In 1923 she moved to the United States. She became an American citizen in 1931.
Personal life[change]
In 1933, she met Russian-born astrophysicist Sergei I. Gaposchkin in Germany. She married him in 1934. She also discovered what elements made up stars.
