Alice Vibert Douglas

Alice Vibert Douglas

Alice Vibert Douglas, astronomer (b at Montréal 1894; d at Kingston Ont 2 July 1988). Douglas received her doctorate from McGill University in 1926. During First World War she was engaged in war work in England and then studied at the Cambridge Observatory and the Cavendish Laboratory 1921-23. On the McGill faculty until 1939, she became dean of women and later professor of astronomy at Queen's University. Because of her interest in the history of astronomy and her personal knowledge of the man, she was asked to write the biography of Arthur Stanley Eddington. Published in 1956, it is still the only biography of this outstanding astronomer. An MBE (1918), Douglas was president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 1943-45 and of the International Federation of University Women 1947-50, and received honorary doctorates from McGill, Queen's and Queensland universities.