Helen L. Thomas (1905–1997, born Helen Meriwether Lewis) was an American astronomer and historian. During her career, she discovered the third identified recurrent

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

system. She was the first woman, second American, and third person to earn a Ph.D. degree in the

History of Science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

from Harvard University. Later in her career, she served as the Head of Publications at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Laboratory of Electronics.

Education and personal life

The daughter of Helen Burdick Lewis and Charles Henry Lewis Jr., Thomas was born in New York City. She attended and graduated high school in Richmond, Virginia ( St. Catherine's School, 1924) before enrolling in Radcliffe in Massachusetts and graduating with honors in 1928 with a degree in government. However, it was observing meteors during the summers of her childhood off

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

that directed her towards her career. During her undergraduate studies, she worked at Harvard College Observatory part time documenting the motions of variable stars. A short marriage with Frederick M. Thomas, entered soon after her graduation, left her with a changed name and a son, Roger, whom she had to support. As a working mother, she entered graduate school at Harvard in 1937, in the History of Science department, earning her Ph.D. in 1948. Her obituary in 1998 described her PhD thesis, "The Early History of Variable Star Observing to the 19th Century," as a "true masterpiece." With her graduation, she became the first woman, second American, and third person to earn this Ph.D. from Harvard University. The first two recipients of this degree at Harvard were Aydin Sayili of Turkey in 1942 and

I. Bernard Cohen I. Bernard Cohen (1 March 1914 – 20 June 2003) was the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the history of science at Harvard University and the author of many books on the history of science and, in particular, Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin. C ...

in 1947. At the age of 80, Thomas attracted press attention when she won a contest she had entered in 1956. As an airline passenger with

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...

, Thomas had been invited to predict the future of air travel. Thirty years later, she collected the $50,000 first prize for the accuracy of her predictions of speed, range, and other factors. She died in 1997 at the age of 91.

Career

In 1934, Thomas took a job with the

American Association of Variable Star Observers The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international nonprofit organization, founded in 1911, focused on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers. ...

, serving as secretary to Recorder of Observations,

Leon Campbell Leon Campbell (January 20, 1881 – May 10, 1951) was an American astronomer. He is noted for his observations of variable stars at the Harvard College Observatory. He served as Recorder of Observations for the AAVSO from its earliest days in 19 ...

, until 1937. In 1937, she took work at Harvard College Observatory again, where she discovered that the nova system U Scorpii was recurrent - only the third nova to be documented to experience multiple nova eruptions. During this period, she also served as a part-time librarian at Radcliffe and as an aeronautical science writer for the '' Christian Science Monitor''. During World War II, she worked first in the

Radio Research Laboratory The Radio Research Laboratory (RRL), located on the campus of Harvard University, was an 800-person secret research laboratory during World War II. Under the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), it was a spinoff of the Radiati ...

at Harvard before seeking a position that she felt offered more equitable pay to women at the

Radiation Laboratory The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was a microwave and radar research laboratory located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was first created in October 1940 and operated until 31 ...

at M.I.T. In 1947, she took full-time employment as an engineer (eventually senior engineer) at the Raytheon Manufacturing Company. There, she worked on

guidance, navigation, and control Guidance, navigation and control (abbreviated GNC, GN&C, or G&C and within the context of NASA operations, often pronounced 'Gintsee' or (IPA) ʤɪnsiː) is a branch of engineering dealing with the design of systems to control the movement o ...

until her departure in 1954. Thereafter, she returned to M.I.T., editing and later heading publications at the Research Laboratory of Electronics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Helen Meriwether Lewis 1905 births 1997 deaths American historians of science Radcliffe College alumni