Monday, January 31, 2005

"Margaret Burbidge -- one of the most distinguished astrophysicists of the past half-century, now a professor emeritus at UC San Diego -- recalled how, as a young woman, she applied for a fellowship to observe the stars using the telescopes atop Mount Wilson in Southern California. She was informed "that women were not allowed at Mount Wilson Observatory." Later she managed to get observing time at Mount Wilson, but only because the time was granted in the name of her husband, astrophysicist Geoffrey Burbidge."