Elizabeth Langdon Williams

Elizabeth Langdon Williams (born February 8, 1879 in Putnam , Connecticut , † 1981 in Enfield , New Hampshire ) was an American mathematician , physicist and astronomer . She graduated from MIT in physics in 1903 as one of the first women to graduate. Their mathematical calculations led to predictions about the location of the planet Pluto, discovered in 1930 .

life and work

Langdon Williams graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in physics in 1903 and was one of the first to graduate. In 1905 she was hired by astronomer Percival Lowell in Boston to do the mathematical calculations needed to predict the location of a planet that Lowell said influenced the orbit of the well-known planets Neptune and Uranus . Their calculations led to predictions about the location of the unknown planet, but since Lowell died in 1916, the project was stopped. The astronomer Clyde Tombaugh was later appointed to lead the project and discovered the planet Pluto in 1930 . In 1919 she moved from Lowell's office in Boston for the Observatory in Flagstaff , Arizona , where she still performed mathematical calculations. In 1922 she married Williams George Hall Hamilton, who had also worked at the Lowell Observatory . However, Lowell's widow found it inappropriate that she should continue to work at the observatory after their marriage and ended the employment relationship. Both then worked at the station of the Harvard College Observatory in Mandeville , Jamaica . Her husband died in 1935 and she moved to live with her sister in New Hampshire .

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personal data
SURNAME	Langdon Williams, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Williams, Elizabeth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American mathematician, physicist, and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	February 8, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH	Putnam
DATE OF DEATH	1981
Place of death	Enfield , New Hampshire