Venetia Katharine Douglas Burney (married name Phair, 11 July 1918 – 30 April 2009) was an English accountant and teacher.

Clyde Tombaugh liked the proposal because it started with the initials of Percival Lowell, who had predicted the existence of Planet X, which they thought was Pluto because it was coincidentally in that position in space.

[5] Burney was educated at Downe House School in Berkshire and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied economics from 1938-41.

[9][10] In July 2015 the New Horizons spacecraft was the first to visit Pluto and carried an instrument named Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter in her honour.

[11] Mihaly Horanyi, Principal Investigator for the instrument, and Alan Stern visited Mrs Phair at home to present her with a plaque, certificate, and spacecraft model.