We are excited to have Mensa member Richard Stachurski speaking at this month’s Science SIG (July 18) about a pioneer in cosmology, Henrietta Leavitt. Richard describes himself as a storyteller.

He specializes in the history of geodesy and cartography, has published several articles, and recently had a book accepted for publication by the University of South Carolina Press.

For this talk, Henrietta Leavitt and Standard Candles: The Key to a Cosmological Revolution, Richard has chosen to wander into the unfamiliar field of astronomy because this story was too good to pass up.

Edward Pickering hired women "computers" to measure the location and magnitude of stars on the thousands of photographic plates being produced by the Harvard College Observatory at the turn of the 20th century. He discouraged the women from involving themselves in the theoretical work. Fortunately, several of them, including Henrietta Leavitt, ignored that prohibition. Leavitt’s theoretical speculations led to the first observational evidence that supported the Big Bang theory.