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Vesto Melvin Slipher (November 11, 1875 – November 8, 1969) was an American astronomer who performed the first measurements of radial velocities for galaxies, providing the empirical basis for the expansion of the universe.

Slipher was born in Mulberry, Indiana, and completed his doctorate at Indiana University in 1909. He spent his entire career at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he was promoted to assistant director in 1915, acting director from 1916, and finally director from 1926 until his retirement in 1952. His brother Earl C. Slipher was also an astronomer and a director at the Lowell Observatory.