BURBIDGE, (ELEANOR) MARGARET

ne Peachey born c. 1925, , Davenport, Cheshire, Eng. English astronomer and first woman to be appointed director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. She made notable contributions to the theory of quasars (quasi-stellar sources) and to the understanding of how the elements are formed in the depths of stars through nuclear fusion. Burbidge served as assistant director (194850) and acting director (195051) of the Observatory of the University of London. In 1955 her husband, Geoffrey Burbidge, obtained a Carnegie fellowship for astronomical research at the Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, Calif. Because women were then ineligible for such an appointment, she was forced to accept a minor research post at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. In 1957 she became Shirley Farr fellow and, later, associate professor at Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wis. She served as research astronomer (196264) and since then as professor of astronomy at the University of California, San Diego, taking a leave of absence to serve as director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (197273). Burbidge carried out stellar-spectra research that served as the foundation of the B2FH theory named for the formulators: the Burbidges, William A. Fowler of the U.S., and Sir Fred Hoyle of Great Britain. This theory provides a revolutionary explanation of the origin of the elements. Her publications include Quasi-Stellar Objects (1967), with Geoffrey Burbidge. She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1964.