Annie Jump Cannon was a brilliant astronomer who revolutionized the way scientists classify stars. Not only did she develop the important Harvard spectral system, she also classified about 350,000 stars manually. She became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Astronomy degree from Groningen University, the first woman ever to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University, and in 1931 she became the first woman to be awarded the Henry Draper Medal of honor from the National Academy of Sciences. Her OBAFGKM system of star classification is still in use today, albeit revised and refined.
Her legacy includes the Annie Jump Cannon Award given by the American Astronomical Society every year to a woman who received her Ph.D. However, considering all the work she did to advance our knowledge of the Universe, she deserves more. If NASA can name telescopes after Edwin Hubble and James Webb, they can honor an important but barely remembered woman the same way.
