Helen Meriwether Lewis Thomas

Helen L. Thomas (August 21, 1905 – August 6, 1997, born Helen Meriwether Lewis) was an American astronomer and historian. During her career, she discovered the third identified recurrent nova system. She was the first woman, second American, and third person to earn a PhD degree in the History of Science from Harvard University. Later in her career, she served as the Head of Publications at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Laboratory of Electronics.

Education and personal life The daughter of Helen Burdick Lewis and Charles Henry Lewis Jr., Thomas was born on August 21, 1905 in New York City.

At the age of 80, Thomas attracted press attention when she won a contest she had entered in 1956. As an airline passenger with Trans World Airlines, Thomas had been invited to predict the future of air travel. Thirty years later, she collected the $50,000 first prize for the accuracy of her predictions of speed, range, and other factors. During this period, she also served as a part-time librarian at Radcliffe and as an aeronautical science writer for the Christian Science Monitor. During World War II, she worked first in the Radio Research Laboratory at Harvard before seeking a position that she felt offered more equitable pay to women at the Radiation Laboratory at MIT. In 1947, she took full-time employment as an engineer (eventually senior engineer) at the Raytheon Manufacturing Company. There, she worked on guidance, navigation, and control until her departure in 1954. Thereafter, she returned to MIT, editing and later heading publications at the Research Laboratory of Electronics.