Cecilia Helena Payne is an astronomer born in Wendover, England on 10 of May in 1900 . She studied botany, physics and chemistry at Cambridge University. Seeking for better prospects for advanced studies, Cecilia Payne decided to leave England for the United States in1920. In 1925, she becomes the first person male or female to receive a Ph.D. in Astronomy for the work of "Stellar Atmosphere", a contribution of the Observational study of "High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars" (at Harvard College Observatory). She became the first woman to become a full-time professor at Harvard. She is also well known for discovering the chemical composition of certain stars and, in particular that hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in most stars and, therefore, in the universe. Basically her work was of fundamental importance in the development of the field of astronomy.

In 1933, she met Serge Gaposchkin, a Russian Astronomer who years later she married; thereafter being know as Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. She published couples books such as "Galactic Novae", a book in which, she noted patterns in observation of stars that had been made over a period of twenty-five years. "Stars of High Luminosity" attempted to provide an ordered account of observations of star behaviour. It is said that Cecilia Gaposchkin work's had broken some of the barriers for women in the field of astronomy.

Additional information: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/C/Ce/Cecilia_Payne-Gaposchkin1.htm

http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/030236.html

Photo courtesy of: http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~cwp/Phase2/Payne-Gaposchkin,_Cecilia_Helena@861234567.html