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Margaret Burbidge

British-born American astronomer (1919-2020) · United Kingdom · On the map · Scientists · Died at 100

Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, (née Peachey; 12 August 1919 - 5 April 2020) was a British-American observational astronomer and astrophysicist. In the 1950s, she was one of the founders of stellar nucleosynthesis and was first author of the influential B2FH paper.

Margaret Burbidge is read about 32 times a day, in 44 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026

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A life in dates

2020Died5 April 20202005Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical SocietyAward1988Albert Einstein World Award of ScienceAward1984Henry Norris Russell LectureshipAward1983National Medal of ScienceAward1982Bruce MedalAward1977Karl G. Jansky LectureshipAward1959Helen B. Warner Prize for AstronomyAward1919Born12 August 1919

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Awards

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society2005
Albert Einstein World Award of Science1988
Henry Norris Russell Lectureship1984
National Medal of Science1983
Bruce Medal1982
Karl G. Jansky Lectureship1977
Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy1959
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

About this person

During the 1960s and 1970s she worked on galaxy rotation curves and quasars, discovering the most distant astronomical object then known. In the 1980s and 1990s she helped develop and utilise the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Burbidge was also well known for her work opposing discrimination against women in astronomy while also opposing positive discrimination.

Country
United Kingdom
Category
Scientists
Type
Scientist
Status
Deceased
Dates
Lived 1919 to 2020 · aged 100