1/4 Dollar 'Washington Quarter' Dr. Vera Rubin

Vera Rubin's inclusion in the American Women Quarters Program reflects a career that was professionally contentious long before it was celebrated. Her observational work in the 1970s on galactic rotation curves provided the most compelling early evidence for dark matter, yet she was initially denied access to Palomar Observatory simply because it had no women's restroom. The National Academy of Sciences elected her in 1981; she never received the Nobel Prize despite widespread expectation that she would, a omission that remains a point of debate in the scientific community.