Jessica M. Young Explained

Jessica May Young Stephens (March 21, 1893 – June 15, 1961) was an American astronomer. She was a professor at Washington University in St. Louis from 1924 to 1958. Her research involved computing the orbits of comets.

Early life and education

Young was from Saint Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Louis Charles Young and Lillian Van Arsdale Young. Her mother was a physician^[1] and her father worked in a printing business.^[2] She had an older sister, Harriett.^[3]

Young graduated from Yeatman High School.^[4] She finished a bachelor's degree at Washington University in 1914,^[5] and earned a master's degree in astronomy and physics there in 1915. Her master's thesis was titled "On the cause of the non-appearance of certain periodic comets on their predicted returns." She completed doctoral studies in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1921, with a dissertation titled "The Galactic Rotation Effect in Open Clusters". She was the fourth woman to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy at Berkeley, after Phoebe Waterman Haas (1913), Anna Estelle Glancy (1913), and Sophia Levy (1920).^{[6] [7]}

Career

Young was appointed as a fellow at the Lick Observatory in 1916.^[8] She presented a paper at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific meeting in 1916,^[9] and published her research in the society's journal. In 1921, she attended the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held in Toronto, one of the eleven women members present.^[10] She began teaching at Washington University in 1920;^[11] in 1924, she was appointed assistant professor of mathematics and astronomy.^[12] In 1958, she was promoted to the rank of associate professor, and she was the first woman to retire from the faculty as Associate Professor Emeritus. She gave public lectures on astronomy topics, and organized viewing groups on campus for eclipses and other sky events. Late in life, she taught at North Carolina A&M College.

Publications

• "Notes on the Orbit of the Visual Binary, A 570" (1922)^[13]
• "Section D (Astronomy) of the A.A.A.S. at St. Louis, Missouri" (1936)^[14]
• "A definitive orbit of the visual binary star, OΣ 298" (1939)^[15]
• "Study of the orbits computed for Comet 1889 VI" (1948)^[16]

Personal life

Young married mathematics professor Eugene Stephens, in 1932. Physicist William Edwards Stephens was Eugene's son from his first marriage.^[17] Her husband died in 1957,^[18] and she died in 1961, in Haverford, Pennsylvania, at the age of 68.

Notes and References

1. News: November 1, 1956 . Dr. Lillian Young Dies, Physician Here 41 Years . St. Louis Post-Dispatch . 22 . Newspapers.com.
2. 1910 United States federal census, via Ancestry.
3. News: December 5, 1927 . Young (death notice) . St. Louis Post-Dispatch . 30 . Newspapers.com.
4. News: Geraghty . June R. . July 11, 1944 . Women of Achievement: Dr. Jessica Young Stephens... Star Gazer . The St. Louis Star and Times . 14 . Newspapers.com.
5. Washington University, The Hatchet (1915 yearbook): 39.
6. Web site: Jessica May Young . 2024-10-17 . 150 Years of Women at Berkeley Astronomy: Early Stars.
7. Web site: Humphreys . Sheila M. . Celestial Observers: First Sixteen Berkeley Women Doctoral Graduates in Astronomy 1913-1952 . 2024-10-17 . 150 Years of Women at Berkeley . en.
8. 1916 . Appointments to Fellowships in the Lick Observatory . Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific . 28 . 164 . 129 . 40691941 . 0004-6280.
9. https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1916PA.....24..332B "General Notes"
10. Web site: Orenstein. David . A Mathematical Centennial: The December 1921 Toronto Meeting of the AAAS – CMS Notes . 2024-10-17 . en-US.
11. Moulton . E. J. . 1920 . Notes and News . The American Mathematical Monthly . 27 . 4 . 189–194 . 10.1080/00029890.1920.11985971 . 2973482 . 0002-9890.
12. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1924-30-03/S0002-9904-1924-03874-9/S0002-9904-1924-03874-9.pdf "Notes"
13. Young . Jessica M. . 1923 . Note on the Orbit of the Visual Binary, A 570 . Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific . 35 . 206 . 221 . 10.1086/123316 . 40693309 . 0004-6280.
14. Stephens . Jessica Young . 1936 . Section D (Astronomy) of the A.A.A.S. at St. Louis, Missouri . Popular Astronomy . 44 . 84 . 1936PA.....44...84S . SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS).
15. Stephens . Jessica Young . 1939 . A definitive orbit of the visual binary star, OΣ 298 . Publications of the American Astronomical Society . 9 . 170 . 1939PAAS....9Q.170S . SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS).
16. Stephens . Jessica Young . 1948 . Study of the orbits computed for Comet 1889 VI . Astronomical Journal . 54 . 48 . 10.1086/106190 . 1948AJ.....54...48S . SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS).
17. Web site: William Edwards Stephens . 2024-10-17 . University Archives and Records Center . en.
18. News: August 5, 1957 . Eugene Stephens Dies in Felton . Santa Cruz Sentinel . 10 . Newspapers.com.