On August 30, 2026, NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, but who was its namesake? In this talk you will learn about the life and scientific legacy of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman (1925-2018) and how she overcame the barriers facing women in early 20th century American astronomy to become the first chief of astronomy at NASA and “Mother of the Hubble Space Telescope,” brought to life with personal photos, oral histories, and original documents from her newly digitized archives at the AIP Niels Bohr Library & Archives.
Bio:
Karina Cooper is a librarian at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives at the American Institute of Physics (AIP) in College Park, MD. She holds a master's degree in library and information science from University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign and has a background in astronomy. At AIP she works to make its history of science collections accessible to the public and to highlight underrepresented histories in the physical sciences. AIP is home to the archival papers of Nancy Grace Roman, which have recently been digitized with a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.