Vera Rubin

(1928 - 2016)

While at Palomar Observatory in 1965, astronomer Vera Rubin discovered the building had no women’s restroom. “She went to her room, cut up paper into a skirt image,” said a colleague, “and stuck it on the bathroom door. ‘There you go,’ she said. ‘Now you have a ladies’ room.’” In 1996 Rubin wrote, “Still more mysteries of the universe remain hidden. Their discovery awaits the adventurous scientists of the future. I like it this way.” She died in December 2016; though long considered a likely recipient, she was never awarded a Nobel Prize for her discovery of dark matter.