Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Name	Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Caption	Bell Burnell in 2015
Birth name	Susan Jocelyn Bell
Birth date	15 July 1943
Birth place	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Fields	Astrophysics
Workplaces	University of Southampton, University College London, Open University, University of Oxford
Alma mater	University of Glasgow, University of Cambridge
Doctoral advisor	Antony Hewish
Known for	Discovery of pulsars
Prizes	Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize (1987), Herschel Medal (1989), Albert A. Michelson Medal (1993), Magellanic Premium (2000), Royal Medal (2015), Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2018)

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a Northern Irish astrophysicist renowned for her pivotal role in the discovery of pulsars. As a postgraduate student at the University of Cambridge, she identified the first radio signals from a pulsar in 1967, a breakthrough recognized by the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to her supervisor, Antony Hewish. Her distinguished career spans academia, including positions at the University of Oxford and the Open University, and she is a prominent advocate for women in science. In 2018, she donated her Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics award money to fund PhD scholarships for underrepresented groups in physics.

Early life and education

Susan Jocelyn Bell was born in Belfast and developed an early interest in science, influenced by her father, an architect for the Armagh Planetarium. She attended The Mount School, York, a Quaker boarding school, where a physics teacher encouraged her pursuits. Despite initial challenges, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Philosophy from the University of Glasgow. She then began postgraduate studies in radio astronomy at the University of Cambridge, working under Antony Hewish at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. There, she helped construct the Interplanetary Scintillation Array and analyzed its voluminous data output.

Discovery of pulsars

While meticulously analyzing chart recordings from the Interplanetary Scintillation Array in 1967, Bell Burnell noticed an unusual, repeating signal. This "bit of scruff" was a regular radio pulse with a period of 1.337 seconds, originating from beyond the Solar System. She and Hewish initially humorously labeled it LGM-1 for "Little Green Men," before confirming it as a natural astrophysical object. This source, later named PSR B1919+21, was the first identified pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, provided the first direct evidence for neutron stars, predicted by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky, and opened a new field in high-energy astrophysics.

Career and research

After completing her PhD, Bell Burnell held research positions at the University of Southampton, where she worked on gamma-ray astronomy, and at University College London, focusing on X-ray astronomy. She later moved into more teaching-focused roles, becoming a professor of physics at the Open University for a decade. She also served as Dean of Science at the University of Bath and as a visiting professor at Princeton University. From 2004 to 2010, she was Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford. Her later research interests included the astrophysics of neutron stars and binary star systems.

Awards and honors

Bell Burnell has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize from the American Astronomical Society and the Herschel Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society. She was awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her discovery of pulsars. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1999 and elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007. She has served as President of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics.

Advocacy and public engagement

A committed advocate for increasing diversity in science, Bell Burnell has frequently spoken on issues facing women in STEM fields. She served as the first female President of the Institute of Physics and worked to improve the representation and retention of women in physics. Her most notable act of advocacy was donating the entire £2.3 million award from her Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics to the Institute of Physics to fund PhD scholarships for students from underrepresented groups, including women, ethnic minorities, and refugees. She is also a noted public speaker and broadcaster, having delivered the BBC's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.

Personal life

Bell Burnell married civil servant Martin Burnell in 1968; they had one son and divorced in 1993. She is a practicing Quaker and has spoken about how her religious faith coexists with her scientific work. She has held several prestigious visiting fellowships, including at Balliol College, Oxford. In her spare time, she enjoys activities such as gardening, walking, and choral music. She continues to be an active and influential figure in the global scientific community.

Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:British astrophysicists Category:Discoverers of astronomical objects Category:Women astronomers