Nancy Grace Roman (born May 16, 1925) is an American astronomer. Throughout her career, Roman has also been an active public speaker and educator, and an advocate for women in the sciences.
Roman was born in Nashville, Tennessee to music teacher Georgia Smith Roman and geophysicist Irwin Roman. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College in 1946 and her Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Chicago in 1949. After graduating, she joined the radio astronomy program at the Naval Research Laboratory.
Roman worked at NASA from 1959 to 1979, where she was the first chief of astronomy in the Office of Space Science, and the first female to hold an executive position. She was responsible for several astronomical satellites, including the Cosmic Background Explorer and the Hubble Space Telescope.
She has received many awards throughout her career, including honorary doctorates from Russell Sage College, Hood College, Bates College, and Swarthmore College.
She has an asteroid named in her honor (2516 Roman).
NASA has named a fellowship for her, the Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship in Astrophysics.
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—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
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For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)