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Date/Time: June 17, 2020, 12-1pm (Eastern)
Jacqueline and Simon Mitton join us to discuss their new biography of celebrated astronomer Vera Rubin, Vera Rubin: A Life (Harvard University Press, 2021). The book tells the story of how Rubin became one of the most influential astronomers of her era, and a powerful advocate for greater inclusion in the sciences.
Rubin’s tireless work during the 1960s and 1970s produced groundbreaking research on the rotation of spiral galaxies and observational evidence confirming the existence of dark matter. As a longtime staff astronomer at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Rubin became a mentor to and champion of younger generations of scientists, especially women astronomers. Her work was recognized by her election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1981 and receipt of the National Medal of Science in 1993. In 1996, she became the first woman to receive the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal since 1828.
Jacqueline Mitton has published over thirty books on astronomy and is a past editor of the Journal of the British Astronomical Association. Simon Mitton is Life Fellow at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge. He has written more than a dozen books on astronomy and the history of science and is Fellow and a former Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The discussion, moderated by Manuscript Division historian Josh Levy and senior archivist Karen Linn Femia, will demonstrate how researchers access, search for, and discover relevant materials within the Library’s holdings and draw conclusions and arguments from historical documents.
Made at the Library is an event series highlighting works inspired by and emerging from research at the Library of Congress. Featuring authors, artists and other creators in conversation with Library experts, this series takes a deep dive into the process of working with Library’s collections.