Beatrice Tinsley (27 January 1941 – 23 March 1981) was the middle child of three siblings whose father was a clergyman.
Her family moved to New Zealand during WW2.
She went to a high school in New Zealand but then went on to University in Canterbury.
She achieved a first-class honour in science in 1961.
She spent her time between Britain and the USA.
She married her physicist husband while in New Zealand and adopted two children then they moved to Texas in 1963.
Her PhD on Evolution of Galaxies and its significance for Cosmology achieved her award from the University of Texas in 1966.
In 1974 she received the American Astronomical Society’s award for ‘outstanding research and promise for future research by a post-doctoral woman researcher’.
By 1978 she was the first female Professor at Yale University in astronomy, then sadly died in 1981 from cancer.
