For nearly a month, from February 11, marking the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, to March 8, the date on which International Women’s Rights Day is celebrated, eight portraits of women astronomers who have worked "for" or "with" the Paris Observatory over the last three centuries will be published on the wire.
Find out the portrait of the second woman in this collection:
Louise Dupiery (1746-1830)
Recognized mathematician and astronomer, she divided her time between astronomical calculations, studies of insects and plants, writing tables in chemistry, drawings of plants and insects
In 1779, Louise Dupiery met Jérôme Lalande, with whom she studied Astronomy and quickly became his scientific assistant, participating in the calculations of ephemerides alongside her male colleagues, supervising the team in his absence and rereading some of his manuscripts before publication. In particular, she published in 1782 an Explanation of the tables of the duration of day and night, which was included in 1783 in the Ephémérides des mouvements célestes (t. 8), under the direction of Lalande. We owe him numerous works involving the collection of astronomical data, including tables of the effects of refraction for the latitude of Paris, as well as calculations of eclipse and of the movement of the Moon. In 1788 Louise Dupiery succeeded Nicole-Reine Lepaute at the Academy of Sciences of Béziers, then became in 1789 the first woman Professor at the Sorbonne University, with a course of astronomy "for the ladies". Between 1800 and 1801, she co-edited with Antoine-François Fourcroy The Alphabetical and Analytical Table of the System of Chemical Knowledge, published in 1801.
| previous portrait: Nicole-Reine Lepaute (1723-1788) |
The Women Astronomers project at Paris Observatory
At the initiative of the working group on equality between women and men, and with the support of the presidency of the Observatoire de Paris-PSL, a committee of female and male researchers, students and doctoral students has been formed to highlight the work of women astronomers who, as much as their male colleagues, have contributed to the scientific history of the institution. These women often remained in the shadow of the private sphere, rarely co-signing the publication of their own results, or confined to the role of assistant or scientific secretary, before finally obtaining the recognized status of astronomer at the beginning of the 20th century.
In addition to a first event in the form of a few web and Twitter publications on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2023, the project plans to build a documentary fund, to write wikipedia content to describe the work of the many women astronomers who have worked with the institution, and eventually an installation in the form of a portrait gallery, displayed in the buildings of the institution.
Participating in this project are Romane Cologni, Lucie Cros, Léa Griton, Mathilde Malin, Rhita-Maria Ouazzani and Gilles Theureau.