Another One Bites The Dust! US Astronomer, Vera Rubin Dies At 88

88-year-old Astronomer, Vera Rubin is dead.

The Philadelphia-born scientist who did the pioneering work that led to the discovery of dark matter passed away on Christmas night.

Born to an Electrical Engineer dad, Rubin’s interest in Astronomy began when she was just 10. And despite being seen as one of the leading women in Science, Rubin once admitted to an interviewer that she wasn’t consciously trying to prove a point when she took up a career in a field that was male-dominated; she just followed her dreams. “I didn’t know a single astronomer, male or female. I didn’t think that all astronomers were male, because I didn’t know.”

Her first major disappointment came when she applied to study Astronomy at Princeton University but was rejected because the college didn’t accept women into the program but she didn’t let that deter her. She enrolled at Cornell and Georgetown where she also got her Ph.D while nursing a young child and being pregnant with another at the age of 23.

Rubin’s experience as one of the very few women scientists made her a strong advocate for women in science. As she once revealed: “I live and work with three basic assumptions:
1. There is no problem in science that can be solved by a man that cannot be solved by a woman.
2. Worldwide, half of all brains are in women.
3. We all need permission to do science, but, for reasons that are deeply ingrained in history, this permission is more often given to men than to women.”

2016 seems bent on taking along with it as many great minds as it can. Rubin’s death comes just a few days after the death of the iconic editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, Franca Sozzani and pop superstar, George Michael.