Caroline Ellen Furness (June 24, 1869 – February 9, 1936) was an American astronomer who taught at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

in the early twentieth century. She studied under

Mary Watson Whitney Mary Watson Whitney (September 11, 1847 – January 20, 1921) was an Americans, American astronomer and for 22 years the head of the Vassar Observatory where 102 scientific papers were published under her guidance. Early life and education ...

at Vassar and was the first woman to earn a PhD in astronomy from Columbia. Furness was born on 24 June 1869 in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. Her father was a high school science teacher and encouraged her early interest in science. She graduated from Vassar in 1887 and followed in her fathers footsteps becoming a high school science teacher, her true interest was in research though and after three years she returned to Vassar as a research assistant for Mary Watson Whitney. Under Whitney she took part in a nearly decade long program of comet and planet observations. In 1896 she began working at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

under Harold Jacoby and would publish her Ph.D. dissertation "Catalogue of stars within one degree of the North pole and optical distortion of the Helsingfors astro-photographic telescope deduced from photographic measures" there in 1900. In 1903 she returned to Vassar as an instructor. She collaborated on

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...

observations with Whitney from 1909 to 1911. In 1915, she authored the authoritative textbook ''Introduction to the Study of Variable Stars''. She became a fellow of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

in 1922. She died on 9 February 1936 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She was an advocate for women's education, particularly in other countries; she wrote a number of articles about the situation of women's higher education in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

; she was an important member of the local branch of the

National Alliance of Unitarian Women National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furness, Caroline 1869 births 1936 deaths American women astronomers Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Vassar College alumni Vassar College faculty Scientists from Cleveland