Vera Rubin, an astronomer who proved the existence of dark matter, one of the fundamental principles in the study of the universe, but who battled sex discrimination throughout her career, died Dec. 25 at an assisted living facility in Princeton, N.J. She was 88.
“The existence of dark matter has utterly revolutionized our concept of the universe and our entire field,” University of Washington astronomer Emily Levesque told Astronomy magazine this year. “The ongoing effort to understand the role of dark matter has basically spawned entire subfields within astrophysics and particle physics.”
For years she was considered a leading contender for the Nobel Prize, but the award never came. Many attributed the oversight to gender bias among male scientists and prize committees.
She struggled to gain admittance to leading observatories. In 1964, she became the first woman to receive formal approval to use the Palomar Observatory in Southern California.
When she arrived, she discovered that it did not have a women’s restroom.
“She went to her room, she cut up paper into a skirt image, and she stuck it on the little person image on the door of the bathroom. She said, ‘There you go; now you have a ladies’ room.’ ”
“I think the question is, are there women and have there been women who want to do science and could be doing great science, but they never really got the opportunity?”
“So important is this dark matter to our understanding of the size, shape, and ultimate fate of the universe, that the search for it will very likely dominate astronomy for the next few decades.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/vera-rubin-astronomer-who-verified-existence-of-dark-matter-dies-at-88/2016/12/26/545e617c-cb9d-11e6-a747-d03044780a02_story.html?utm_term=.6adf1d641bb3
http://mashable.com/2016/12/26/vera-rubin-astronomer-feminist/#icSrV.UMPgqb
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/universe/questions_and_ideas/dark_matter
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