THE MARK
CENTURIES OF SCHOLARSHIP
Trailblazing professors turn 100 .
“ LADY STARDUST ”
AMONG ASTRONOMERS , UC San Diego ’ s physics professor emerita Margaret Burbidge is a true star . Her work , after all , was critical in showing just how literally that statement could be taken — we ’ re all stars — at least it ’ s the stuff we ’ re made of . Earning the nickname “ Lady Stardust ” during her illustrious career in astronomy , Burbidge is particularly known for helping to advance the understanding of nucleosynthesis — the process by which elements are created within stars by combining the protons and neutrons from the nuclei of lighter elements .
Her work built upon what fellow UC San Diego luminaries Harold Urey , Hans Suess and Maria Goeppert Mayer were doing throughout the 1950s . “ Maria Mayer played a big role in figuring out the stability of the elements , and Harold Urey and Hans Suess had shown that the elements came from stars ,” says Mark Thiemens , distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry . “ But the process of how that occurred remained unknown .”
Not for long — in 1957 , Margaret Burbidge , with her husband and theoretical astrophysicist Geoffrey Burbidge , and colleagues Willy Fowler and Fred Hoyle , wrote a paper titled The Synthesis of the Elements in Stars . “ It was the first , and still is , the most important paper that ’ s ever been written on that subject ,” says Thiemens . “ It was the cookbook of how the elements were made , and why .”
Her career is marked by a number of additional firsts — Burbidge was the first female to direct the Royal Greenwich Observatory , the first female member of the U . S . National Academy of Sciences and the first female president of the American Astronomical Society ( AAS ). As the first director of UC San Diego ’ s Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences , she helped develop instruments for the Hubble Space Telescope . Even more remarkable , however , is how Burbidge ’ s trek of firsts began in an era when women were all but eclipsed in science .
She was denied a Carnegie Fellowship , for instance , because it required observations at Mount Wilson Observatory , which at the time was reserved only for men . To gain access , she was required to pose as her husband ’ s assistant and live in a separate cottage on the grounds .
“ One of the things that most struck me about her was how determined she had to be about doing astronomy , in the face of rampant discrimination against women . Yet it never made her bitter or resentful ,” notes Meg Urry , a professor of physics at Yale University . Burbidge was forward-thinking — in 1972 , for example , she declined the AAS ’ Annie J . Cannon Award precisely because it was awarded only to women . Her letter of rejection stated , “ It is high time that discrimination in the favor of , as well as against , women in professional life be removed .”
At UC San Diego , the impact of Burbidge ’ s influence is apparent in the Margaret Burbidge Visiting Professorship , a program funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation which brings eminent female physicists to campus . And of course , her influence speaks volumes from those she taught . “ Margaret is the first woman scientist I met ,” says Kristen Sellgren ’ 76 , now an astronomy professor emeritus at The Ohio State University . “ Her discoveries were front-page news when I was growing up in San Diego . She is the reason I went to UCSD for undergrad in 1973 . She has been a great inspiration and a great mentor .”
— Cynthia Dillon
18 TRITON | WINTER 2020