Edwin Hubble received the Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science in 1935. The medal was awarded by Columbia University and recognized important contributions to scientific knowledge rather than achievement in astronomy alone.
By that time, Hubble had transformed the study of the universe. Using the Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, he identified Cepheid variable stars in objects such as the Andromeda Nebula. Their known luminosity patterns allowed him to estimate distances and demonstrate that these objects were galaxies outside the Milky Way.
Hubble’s later work connected galaxy distances with redshift-based recession velocities, helping establish the observational case for an expanding universe. The award year is easy to mix up with 1940, when Hubble received the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal. The Barnard Medal itself was presented on a five-year cycle during this period, with earlier recipients including Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr.