Nancy Grace Roman, Ph.D.

Raised in a time when women were discouraged from pursuing a science career, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman succeeded in establishing herself in a scientific career and left a legacy for future astronomers. Often called the "Mother of Hubble" for her efforts in making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality, Roman was instrumental in establishing a new era of space-based astronomical instrumentation.

Roman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 16, 1925, to music teacher Georgia S. Roman and geophysicist Irwin Roman. Around age 12, the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, when Roman’s father was hired as the Senior Geophysicist at the Baltimore office of the US Geological Survey. Although discouraged by the educators around her, Roman knew by the time she was in high school that she wanted to pursue her passion for astronomy. She attended Baltimore’s Western High School, where she participated in an accelerated program and graduated in three years.

Roman attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Astronomy (1946). While she studied there, Roman worked at the Sproul Observatory. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in the same field at the University of Chicago in 1949. She stayed at the University for six more years, working at the Yerkes Observatory and sometimes the McDonald Observatory in Texas. Roman left the University due to gender discrimination towards getting tenure and began working at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), where she entered the new field of radio astronomy (1955-1959).

Roman was the first Chief of Astronomy in NASA's Office of Space Science, setting up the initial program, and was the first woman to hold an executive position at the space agency. She was involved in most of the high-profile projects at NASA. Among the many space missions she helped develop were three orbiting solar observatories - the Orbiting Astronomical Observatories - a pair of satellites to study the sky in the ultraviolet (which cannot be seen from Earth); the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), which took pictures of the leftover radiation from the Big Bang; and the Hubble Space Telescope. Although Roman retired from NASA in 1979, she returned as a consultant to coordinate the engineers and astronomers working on the project. Because of her contributions and efforts to get the Hubble Space Telescope approved by the U.S. Congress, Roman became known as the "Mother of Hubble."

After retiring from NASA, Roman’s love for astronomy and science pushed her to keep working in the field. In 1981, she joined Goddard’s Astronomical Data Center and later became its Director in 1995 until retiring in 1997. She then joined the Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic (now called Learning Ally) and Journey to the Universe program that sent scientists to schools in underserved areas of the United States.

Outside her work, Roman enjoyed going to lectures and concerts and was active in the American Association of University Women. Throughout her career, Roman was an active public speaker, educator, and advocate for women in the sciences.

In 2017, the Lego toy company released a set of figurines honoring four pioneering women of NASA - including astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, computer programmer Margaret Hamilton, and Roman.

Dr. Nancy G. Roman died at age 93 on December 25, 2018. In May 2020, NASA announced the renaming of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in her honor to recognize Roman’s contributions to astronomy.

"My career was quite unusual so my main advice to someone interested in a career similar to my own is to remain open to change and new opportunities. I like to tell students that the jobs I took after my Ph.D. were not in existence only a few years before. New opportunities can open up for you in this ever changing field."