Monseigneur Georges Henri Joseph douard Lemaitre (what a mouthful!) was born in 1894 in Belgium. His resume had plenty of professions you wouldn't normally see together, such as Roman Catholic priest, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Universite catholique de Louvain. He studied at the University of Cambridge where he earned a PhD. Because he followed the stars just as closely as he did God, we have suitable theories for the origins of the universe.
Unfortunately, Lemaitre's name doesn't come up quite as often as it should. Many of his theories are attributed to Edwin Hubble who published similar theories two years after Lemaitre. Lemaitre was also the first to derive what is known as Hubble's Law and the first to come up with Hubble's constant. It seems as though we named our magnificent space telescope after the wrong guy!
