Alice Vibert Douglas
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Alice Vibert Douglas (1894 in Montreal – 2 July 1988 Kingston, Ontario) was a Canadian Astronomer. She began her studies in mathematics and physics at McGill University, but with the outbreak of World War I, she went to London to work in the War Office as a statistician. In 1918, at the age of 23, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her work.
Having returned to Montreal in 1920, she continued her studies, earning a Bachelors degree and then Masters Degree in 1921. Then she went on to Cambridge, studying under Arthur Eddington, one of the leading astronomers of the day. She earned her PhD in astrophysics through McGill in 1925 and was the first person to receive it from a Quebec university, and one of the first women to accomplish this in North America.
Vibert Douglas remained at McGill for the next 14 years. Then in 1939 she moved to Queens University where she served as Dean of Women until 1958. She was Professor of Astronomy from 1946 until her retirement in 1964 and was instrumental in having women accepted into engineering and medicine. In 1967 she became an Officer of the Order of Canada. In the same year, the National Council of Jewish Women named her as one of 10 Women of the Century. In 1988, the year of her death, asteroid 3269 was named Vibert Douglas in her honor. She was also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain and a president of the RASC.
While in Kingston, she was an active member of the Kingston Centre RASC. There was interest in astronomy in the Kingston area long before the Centre was founded in 1961. The Kingston Observatory opened in 1855, the first in Ontario, and astronomy has been taught at Queens since 1863. In the early 1900’s Queen’s professors and others from the area had become members of the Society. Vibert Douglas was an active member dating back to her Montreal years and became National President in 1943-44. It was largely due to Vibert Douglas’ work that the Kingston Centre was formed in 1961, the 16th Centre of the Society.
Vibert Douglas has a crater on Venus named after her. The Vibert Douglas patera is located at 11.6 South latitude 194.3 East longitude. It is almost circular and 45 km in diameter.
