SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Vera C. Rubin Observ-
atory Designation Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Dr. Vera Rubin was born July 23, 1928, to 
Philip and Rose Applebaum Cooper. 
(2) Dr. Rubin pursued her graduate studies at 
Cornell University and Georgetown University, earn-
ing her Ph.D. in Physics in 1954. 
(3) Dr. Rubin’s Ph.D. thesis on galaxy motions 
provided supporting evidence that galaxies are not 
uniformly distributed, but exist in clusters. 
(4) Dr. Rubin continued to study the motions 
of galaxies, first as research associate and assistant 
professor at Georgetown University, and then as a 
member of the staff at the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. 
(5) Dr. Rubin faced barriers throughout her ca-
reer because of her gender. 
(6) For instance, one of the world’s leading as-
tronomy facilities at the time, the Palomar Observ-
atory, did not permit women. Dr. Rubin persisted 
and was finally allowed to observe at Palomar in 
1965, the first woman officially allowed to do so.
(7) In 1970, Dr. Rubin published measure-
ments of the Andromeda galaxy showing stars and 
gas orbiting the galaxy’s center too fast to be ex-
plained by the amount of mass associated with the 
light output of the stars. 
(8) In the years that followed, Dr. Rubin and 
her collaborators used their observations, in conjunc-
tion with the work by earlier astronomers on the ro-
tation of stars in spiral galaxies, to provide some of 
the best evidence for the existence of dark matter. 
(9) This work contributed to a major shift in 
the conventional view of the universe, from one 
dominated by ordinary matter such as what pro-
duces the light of stars, to one dominated by dark 
matter. 
(10) Dr. Rubin was elected to the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1981, the second woman as-
tronomer to be so honored. 
(11) Dr. Rubin was awarded the President’s 
National Medal of Science in 1993 ‘‘for her pio-
neering research programs in observational cos-
mology which demonstrated that much of the matter 
in the universe is dark, and for significant contribu-
tions to the realization that the universe is more
complex and more mysterious than had been imag-
ined’’. 
(12) Dr. Rubin was an outspoken advocate for 
the equal treatment and representation of women in 
science, and she served as a mentor, supporter, and 
role model to many women astronomers throughout 
her life. 
(13) The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, 
funded jointly by the National Science Foundation 
and the Department of Energy, will honor the legacy 
of Dr. Rubin and her colleagues to probe the nature 
of dark matter by mapping and cataloging billions of 
galaxies through space and time. 
SEC. 3. DESIGNATION. 
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope shall be known 
and designated as the ‘‘Vera C. Rubin Observatory’’. 
SEC. 4. REFERENCES. 
Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, 
paper, or other record of the United States to the facility
described in section 3 shall be deemed to be a reference 
to the ‘‘Vera C. Rubin Observatory’’. 
Passed the House of Representatives July 23, 2019. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 3196 
AN ACT 
To designate the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope 
as the ‘‘Vera C. Rubin Observatory’’.