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Dorrit Hoffleit

Department of Astronomy

Yale University

New Haven, CT 06520-8101

Received: January 2, 1998

A shorter version of this paper first appeared in Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, March, 1998

Abstract

Helen Lewis Thomas was Secretary to Leon Campbell, the first Recorder of the AAVSO, from 1934 to 1937, but worked intermittently on variable stars at Harvard from 1927 until World War II. In 1948 she earned the third Ph.D. degree in the History of Science awarded at Harvard or Radcliffe, being the first American woman to receive this degree. A most versatile scholar, she was successful in a variety of careers ranging from Engineer at the Raytheon electronics company to Head of Publications at the M.I.T. Laboratory of Electronics. She maintained a lifelong interest in the AAVSO.

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