Rubin Wins Cosmology Prize

The Peter Gruber Foundation will present its Cosmology Prize for 2002 to Vera Rubin this month in a ceremony at the Carnegie Observatory’s Centennial Symposia II in Pasadena, California. She will receive a gold medal and $150 000. The foundation, which is based in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, annually awards the prize to recognize individuals who have contributed to fundamental advances in cosmology. Jury members appointed by the International Astronomical Union in Paris select the recipients.

An astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Rubin is “preeminent in studying the motions of galaxies,” reports the foundation. Her “pioneering studies of deviations of galaxy motions from classic Hubble theory demonstrated that large-scale structure existed in the universe.” Through her explorations of the rotation of spiral galaxies, she has found that most of the universe is unseen dark matter.

The foundation notes that Rubin is a role model for women in the sciences, particularly in astronomy. In 1965, she became the first woman sanctioned to observe at Palomar Observatory and, in 1996, was the first woman since 1828 to receive the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in London. “By example and gentle voice,” says the citation, “she has championed equal rights and revealed the incredible beauty of the universe.”