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 sixth woman in this collection:
Lucie or Marguerite Roumens, wife of Azambuja (1898 - 1985)
Marguerite Roumens is a specialist in solar activity and spectroscopic measurements. She worked from 1925 on the operation of the spectroheliograph of the observatory of Meudon.
After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in mathematical sciences in 1918 in Paris, Lucie Roumens taught at the French school of Spire in Germany from 1920 to 1923. She was then hired part-time at the École Polytechnique by Pérot to measure the spectra of the Sun. It is our star which will be its principal object of study during its career. In 1924, she was appointed to the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) as an assistant at the laboratory of the Observatoire de Paris, section of Meudon. At the same time, she took courses at the École supérieure d’optique. She was encouraged to take a degree in mathematical sciences which she obtained in 1928. When Pérot died in 1925, she worked with Grenat on observations of the Sun with the spectroheliograph of the Meudon observatory. She was appointed assistant on May 1, 1932, replacing Raymonde Chevallier, and the following year she was named officer of the Academy, a distinction conferred by the Ministry of Public Instruction. She became assistant astronomer on December 1, 1937, replacing
Maneng. She participated in the eclipse expedition of Khartoum in 1952.
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The Women Astronomers project at the 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 up a documentary fund, to write wikipedia content to describe the work of the many women astronomers who have worked with the institution, and eventually to create an installation in the form of a portrait gallery, to be exhibited 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.