Allie Vibert Douglas

Douglas was born in Montreal, Quebec, on 15 December 1894 to parents John Albert Vibert and Allie Douglas.Quebec, Canada, Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1968, Montreal-Methodist Saint James-1894, pg.30 Douglas's mother died the year she was born, and her father died in 1904, leaving her and her brother, George, to be raised by her aunts and grandmother in London, England. Born "Alice Douglas Vibert", Douglas and her brother took "Vibert" as their middle name and "Douglas" as their last in 1920 honour of their aunt and their mother.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-05 |title=Birth and Baptismal Certificate |url=https://digital.library.queensu.ca/birth-and-baptismal-certificate |website=Queen's University Library Digital Collections}}

Douglas' grandfather was Rev. George Douglas, a prominent Methodist minister and educator.{{cite book |last=Dent |first=John Charles |title=The Canadian Portrait Gallery |volume=II |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20100711 |publisher=John B. Magurn |location=Toronto |year=1880 |page=95}} In 1904 both Douglas and her brother returned to Montreal where they attended Westmount High School. Growing up, Douglas was interested in science but felt that her gender was a handicap. In high school, she was refused admission to a small science club solely because she was a woman. Her brother helped her circumvent this issue by leaving the door ajar and letting Douglas sit outside the classroom to listen to lectures. Douglas graduated at the top of her class and received a scholarship to McGill University.

In 1912 she began her studies in honors mathematics and physics at McGill, but they were interrupted during her third year by the outbreak of World War I. Her brother George enlisted as an officer, was stationed near London, England and moved his family, including Douglas, with him. Douglas was then invited to join the war effort by a family friend and decided to work in the War Office as a statistician. Although bombs would fall close to her workplace, Douglas persevered and had the highest payout of all of the temporary women civil servants in the National Service. In 1918, at the age of 23, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her work.{{London Gazette |date=7 January 1918 |issue=30460 |page=393 |supp=y}}

Having returned to Montreal in 1920, she continued her studies, earning a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in 1921. She went on to the University of Cambridge, working with Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory and studying under Arthur Eddington, one of the leading astronomers of the day.Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey, and Joy Dorothy Harvey. The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. New York: Routledge, 2000. She earned her PhD in astrophysics through McGill in 1926 and was the first person to receive it from a Quebec university, and one of the first women to accomplish this in North America. Douglas wrote an important biography of Eddington, The Life of Arthur Eddington at the request of his sister, Winnifred.{{cite book |title=The Life of Arthur Eddington |first=A. Vibert |last=Douglas |pages=92–95 |publisher=Thomas Nelson and Sons |year=1956 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bw0XAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA92 }}{{Cite journal |last=Hogg |first=Helen Sawyer |date=1989 |title=A. Vibert Douglas |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/42/7/88/839229/A-Vibert-Douglas |journal=Physics Today |volume=42 |issue=7 |pages=88–89 |doi=10.1063/1.2811101 |bibcode=1989PhT....42g..88H }}

After completing her doctorate, Douglas joined the faculty at McGill, lecturing in physics and astrophysics. In 1939 she moved to Queen's University at Kingston where she served as Dean of Women until 1958. She was a professor of astronomy from 1946 until her retirement in 1964 and was instrumental in having women accepted into engineering and medicine. During World War II she established that all students had to complete two mandatory hours of "contribution to the war effort", set up knitting stations for women between classes, and required all new students to go take nursing classes. She became the first Canadian president of the International Federation of University Women from 1947-1950.{{Cite web |title=Alice Vibert Douglas |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alice-vibert-douglas |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |language=en}}

Douglas was an active member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) and became female president in 1943. It was largely due to her work that the Kingston Centre of the RASC was founded in 1961.{{Cite web |last=macdonald|first=walter |date=2013-08-03 |title=Alice Douglas |url=https://www.rasc.ca/alice-douglas |access-date=2023-03-16 |website=RASC |language=en}}

Collaborating with John Stuart Foster, she researched the spectra of A and B type stars and the Stark effect using the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. In 1947 she became the first Canadian president of the International Astronomical Union and represented Canada during a UNESCO conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, seven years later. In 1967 she became an Officer of the Order of Canada and was named one of 10 Women of the Century by the National Council of Jewish Women. She received honorary doctorates from McGill, Queen's and Queensland Universities.

Douglas never married, though she remained close with her brother George and his family throughout her life.

Douglas had a love of travel, and visited dozens of countries in her lifetime, including Russia, China, Czechoslovakia, and India. As of 2003, she held the Canadian record for attending the largest number of International Astronomical Union meetings.{{Cite web |date=2003 |title=Allie Vibert Douglas 1894-1988 |url=https://www.queensu.ca/physics/sites/physwww/files/uploaded_files/History/History-AVDouglas.pdf |website=QueensU.ca}}

She lived in Kingston until her death on 2 July 1988 at the age of 93.Ogilvie & Harvey, p. 756

Vibert Douglas has a patera (an irregular or complex crater) on Venus named after her. Vibert-Douglas Patera is located at 11.6° South latitude 194.3° East longitude. It is almost circular and 45 km in diameter.{{cite web |url=http://www.astro.umontreal.ca/~casca/PR/13012003.html |title=Statistics|website=www.astro.umontreal.ca}}{{cite web |url=https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2003/pdf/1041.pdf |title=Data |website=www.lpi.usra.edu}} In 1988, the year of her death, asteroid 3269 was named Vibert Douglas in her honor. She has a wing in Jean Royce Hall on Queen's University campus named after her.{{Cite web |title=Jean Royce Hall {{!}} Queen's Encyclopedia |url=https://www.queensu.ca/encyclopedia/j/jean-royce-hall |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=www.queensu.ca}}

• List of craters on Venus
• {{section link|List of geological features on Venus|Paterae}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://db-archives.library.queensu.ca/index.php/allie-vibert-douglas-fonds Allie Vibert Douglas fonds] at [http://archives.queensu.ca/ Queen's University Archives]
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Ogilvie|editor1-first=Marilyn|editor2-last=Harvey|editor2-first=Joy|editor-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie|editor2-link=Joy Harvey|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the mid-20th Century|date=2000|publisher=Routledge|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-415-92039-6|volume=1: A-K|name-list-style=amp}}
• Wells, Karin (October 4, 2022). More Than a Footnote. Second Story Press. {{ISBN|978-1772602661}}.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Allie Vibert}}

Category:1894 births

Category:1988 deaths

Category:20th-century Canadian astronomers

Category:Canadian astrophysicists

Category:McGill University Faculty of Science alumni

Category:Canadian Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Officers of the Order of Canada

Category:Scientists from Montreal

Category:Canadian women astronomers

Category:20th-century Canadian women scientists

Category:Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

Category:Canadian women astrophysicists