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EspañolJOCELYN BELL BURNELL
(Redirected from Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell)
'Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell', DBE, FRS FRAS, Ph.D (born as 'Susan Jocelyn Bell', 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist, who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis advisor Antony Hewish, for which he won a Nobel Prize.
As Hewish's graduate student, Bell first noticed the radio source which was ultimately recognised as the first pulsar.
The paper announcing the discovery had five authors, Hewish's name being listed first, Bell's second. Hewish was awarded the Nobel Prize, along with Martin Ryle, without the inclusion of Bell as a co-recipient, which was controversial, and was roundly condemned by Hewish's fellow astronomer Fred Hoyle.[1] Others, however, have noted that the prize was given to Ryle and Hewish for their work across the field of radio-astronomy as a whole, with particular mention of Ryle's work on aperture-synthesis, and Hewish's on pulsars.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where her father was an architect for the nearby Armagh Planetarium,[2] she enjoyed a large library and was encouraged to read. She was especially drawn to the books on astronomy. At eleven, she failed the 11+ exam and her parents sent her to the Mount School, York, a Quaker girls' boarding school[3]. There she was impressed by a physics teacher who taught her:
::''"You don't have to learn lots and lots...of facts; you just learn a few key things, and...then you can apply and build and develop from those... He was a really good teacher and showed me, actually, how easy physics was."''
She married Martin Burnell in 1968, and they have one son, Gavin, born in 1973, and a grandson, Matthew, born in 2005.
She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a B.Sc. in physics in 1965 and received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1969. At Cambridge, she worked with Hewish and others to construct[4] a radio telescope for using interplanetary scintillation to study quasars, which had recently been discovered (interplanetary scintillation allows compact sources to be distinguished from extended ones). Detecting a bit of "scruff" on her chart recorder papers that tracked across the sky with the stars, Bell Burnell found that the signal was regularly pulsing, about once each second. Temporarily dubbed "Little Green Man 1" the source was eventually identified as a rapidly rotating neutron star.
After finishing her PhD, Bell Burnell worked at the University of Southampton (1968-73), University College London (1974-82) and the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (1982-91). In addition, from 1973 to 1987 she was also a tutor, consultant, examiner and lecturer for the Open University. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (biography at UCLA)
In 1991 she was appointed Professor of Physics at the Open University, a position she held for ten years. She was also a visiting professor at Princeton University. Before retiring Bell Burnell was Dean of Science at the University of Bath between 2001 and 2004,[5] and was President of the Royal Astronomical Society between 2002 and 2004. She is currently Visiting Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Mansfield College.[6]
Bell is the house patron of Burnell House at Cambridge House Grammar School in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and sits on the Advisory Board of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.
She has campaigned to improve the status and number of women in professional and academic posts in the fields of physics and astronomy.[7]
From her school days, Bell has remained an active Quaker and served as Clerk to the sessions of Britain Yearly Meeting in 1995, 1996 and 1997. She delivered a Swarthmore Lecture under the title ''Broken for life'',[8] at Yearly Meeting in Aberdeen on August 1 1989.
Bell revealed her personal religious history and beliefs in an interview with Joan Bakewell in 2006.[9] She served on the Quaker Peace and Social Witness Testimonies Committee, which produced ''Engaging with the Quaker Testimonies: a Toolkit'' in February 2007,[10] and wrote the introductory essay.
Although she was overlooked and didn't share the 1974 Nobel Prize for Physics with Hewish for her discovery, she has been honoured by many other organisations:
★ Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1973, jointly with Hewish)[11].
★ J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize from the Center for Theoretical Studies in Miami (1978).
★ Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize of the American Astronomical Society (1987).
★ Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1989).
★ Karl G.Jansky Lectureship of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory(1995).[12]
★ Magellanic Premium of the American Philosophical Society (2000).[13]
★ Fellow of the Royal Society (March 2003).[14]
She has been awarded numerous honorary degrees, for instance, recently:
★ In 2007 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Harvard University.[15]
★ On 23 June 2007, Bell Burnell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Durham.
She was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in June 2007.[16]
'Books'
★ Broken for Life, , S. Jocelyn, Burnell, Quaker Home Service, , (Swarthmore Lecture)
'Scientific papers'
★ Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source, , Antony, Hewish, Nature,
★ Observations of some further Pulsed Radio Sources, , , J D H Pilkington, Nature,
For additional titles ''See'' Reference
1. No Nobel Prize for Whining
2. Pulsar Pioneer visits us Colin Johnston
3. At Mount School 1956 – 61. She is the 2007 President of the Old Scholars' Association.
4. "...upon entering the faculty, each student was issued a set of tools: a pair of plyers, a pair on long-nose plyers, a wire cutter, and a screwdriver...", said during a public lecture in Montreal during the 40 Years of Pulsars conference, August 14, 2007
5. University of Bath Press Release, announcing Bell Burnell's retirement
6. Queen's Birthday Honours 2007
7. Article by Bell Burnell in ''Science'':"So Few Pulsars, So Few Females" 23 April 2004: Vol. 304. no. 5670, p. 489 See also Belfast Telegraph's interview, at this time.
8. Details of the print version of the lecture are given in the Bibliography
9. Transcript of interview by Joan Bakewell for the BBC Radio 3 series "Belief" (2 January 2006)
10. ''Engaging with the Quaker Testimonies: a Toolkit'', 2007 ISBN 0-90168959-9
11. Franklin Institute citation
12. Official list of Jansky Lecturers
13. Official list of Premium winners
14. Royal Society article about Bell Burnell, with portrait
15. Honorary degrees awarded at Commencement’s Morning Exercises, Harvard Crimson, June 7, 2007
16. ''Guardian'' Commentary on the Birthday Honours, 16 June 2007
★ Freeview video 'Tick, Tick, Pulsating Star: How I Wonder What You Are?' A Royal Institution Discourse by the Vega Science Trust
★ - An after-dinner speech by Jocelyn Bell Burnell on her life and the discovery of pulsars
★ Royal Society citation
★ Transcript of interview by Joan Bakewell for the BBC Radio 3 series "Belief" (2 January 2006)
★ Gale - Free Resources: Article on Bell Burnell from ''Encyclopedia of World Biography'' 1998.
★ Four video clips in which Bell Burnell gives a brief answer to the following questions: Having made a monumental discovery in science, how does that affect one's latter career? What was the process for discovering pulsars? Were you looking for them based on a theory, or were you trying to clarify a phenomenon? Where are your research interests focussed at the moment?What future discoveries do you expect in Astronomy? (BBC/Open University Masters of Science website)
★ UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering Technology biographical webpage.
★ Biographical article, indicating Bell Burnell's beliefs and personal life, from California State Polytechnic University NOVA project.
★ Counterbalance Library: Bell Burnell talk “ Science and the Spiritual Quest” (24 Minutes)
★ Northern Star (TV Documentary on Jocelyn Bell Burnell's life)
'Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell', DBE, FRS FRAS, Ph.D (born as 'Susan Jocelyn Bell', 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist, who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis advisor Antony Hewish, for which he won a Nobel Prize.
Pulsar - the Crab Nebula
As Hewish's graduate student, Bell first noticed the radio source which was ultimately recognised as the first pulsar.
The paper announcing the discovery had five authors, Hewish's name being listed first, Bell's second. Hewish was awarded the Nobel Prize, along with Martin Ryle, without the inclusion of Bell as a co-recipient, which was controversial, and was roundly condemned by Hewish's fellow astronomer Fred Hoyle.[1] Others, however, have noted that the prize was given to Ryle and Hewish for their work across the field of radio-astronomy as a whole, with particular mention of Ryle's work on aperture-synthesis, and Hewish's on pulsars.
| Contents |
| Background and family life |
| Academic career |
| Non-academic life |
| Quaker activities and beliefs |
| Honours |
| Further reading |
| References |
| External links |
Background and family life
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where her father was an architect for the nearby Armagh Planetarium,[2] she enjoyed a large library and was encouraged to read. She was especially drawn to the books on astronomy. At eleven, she failed the 11+ exam and her parents sent her to the Mount School, York, a Quaker girls' boarding school[3]. There she was impressed by a physics teacher who taught her:
::''"You don't have to learn lots and lots...of facts; you just learn a few key things, and...then you can apply and build and develop from those... He was a really good teacher and showed me, actually, how easy physics was."''
She married Martin Burnell in 1968, and they have one son, Gavin, born in 1973, and a grandson, Matthew, born in 2005.
Academic career
She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a B.Sc. in physics in 1965 and received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1969. At Cambridge, she worked with Hewish and others to construct[4] a radio telescope for using interplanetary scintillation to study quasars, which had recently been discovered (interplanetary scintillation allows compact sources to be distinguished from extended ones). Detecting a bit of "scruff" on her chart recorder papers that tracked across the sky with the stars, Bell Burnell found that the signal was regularly pulsing, about once each second. Temporarily dubbed "Little Green Man 1" the source was eventually identified as a rapidly rotating neutron star.
After finishing her PhD, Bell Burnell worked at the University of Southampton (1968-73), University College London (1974-82) and the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (1982-91). In addition, from 1973 to 1987 she was also a tutor, consultant, examiner and lecturer for the Open University. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (biography at UCLA)
In 1991 she was appointed Professor of Physics at the Open University, a position she held for ten years. She was also a visiting professor at Princeton University. Before retiring Bell Burnell was Dean of Science at the University of Bath between 2001 and 2004,[5] and was President of the Royal Astronomical Society between 2002 and 2004. She is currently Visiting Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Mansfield College.[6]
Non-academic life
Bell is the house patron of Burnell House at Cambridge House Grammar School in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and sits on the Advisory Board of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.
She has campaigned to improve the status and number of women in professional and academic posts in the fields of physics and astronomy.[7]
Quaker activities and beliefs
From her school days, Bell has remained an active Quaker and served as Clerk to the sessions of Britain Yearly Meeting in 1995, 1996 and 1997. She delivered a Swarthmore Lecture under the title ''Broken for life'',[8] at Yearly Meeting in Aberdeen on August 1 1989.
Bell revealed her personal religious history and beliefs in an interview with Joan Bakewell in 2006.[9] She served on the Quaker Peace and Social Witness Testimonies Committee, which produced ''Engaging with the Quaker Testimonies: a Toolkit'' in February 2007,[10] and wrote the introductory essay.
Honours
Although she was overlooked and didn't share the 1974 Nobel Prize for Physics with Hewish for her discovery, she has been honoured by many other organisations:
★ Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1973, jointly with Hewish)[11].
★ J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize from the Center for Theoretical Studies in Miami (1978).
★ Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize of the American Astronomical Society (1987).
★ Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1989).
★ Karl G.Jansky Lectureship of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory(1995).[12]
★ Magellanic Premium of the American Philosophical Society (2000).[13]
★ Fellow of the Royal Society (March 2003).[14]
She has been awarded numerous honorary degrees, for instance, recently:
★ In 2007 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Harvard University.[15]
★ On 23 June 2007, Bell Burnell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Durham.
She was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in June 2007.[16]
Further reading
'Books'
★ Broken for Life, , S. Jocelyn, Burnell, Quaker Home Service, , (Swarthmore Lecture)
'Scientific papers'
★ Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source, , Antony, Hewish, Nature,
★ Observations of some further Pulsed Radio Sources, , , J D H Pilkington, Nature,
For additional titles ''See'' Reference
References
1. No Nobel Prize for Whining
2. Pulsar Pioneer visits us Colin Johnston
3. At Mount School 1956 – 61. She is the 2007 President of the Old Scholars' Association.
4. "...upon entering the faculty, each student was issued a set of tools: a pair of plyers, a pair on long-nose plyers, a wire cutter, and a screwdriver...", said during a public lecture in Montreal during the 40 Years of Pulsars conference, August 14, 2007
5. University of Bath Press Release, announcing Bell Burnell's retirement
6. Queen's Birthday Honours 2007
7. Article by Bell Burnell in ''Science'':"So Few Pulsars, So Few Females" 23 April 2004: Vol. 304. no. 5670, p. 489 See also Belfast Telegraph's interview, at this time.
8. Details of the print version of the lecture are given in the Bibliography
9. Transcript of interview by Joan Bakewell for the BBC Radio 3 series "Belief" (2 January 2006)
10. ''Engaging with the Quaker Testimonies: a Toolkit'', 2007 ISBN 0-90168959-9
11. Franklin Institute citation
12. Official list of Jansky Lecturers
13. Official list of Premium winners
14. Royal Society article about Bell Burnell, with portrait
15. Honorary degrees awarded at Commencement’s Morning Exercises, Harvard Crimson, June 7, 2007
16. ''Guardian'' Commentary on the Birthday Honours, 16 June 2007
External links
★ Freeview video 'Tick, Tick, Pulsating Star: How I Wonder What You Are?' A Royal Institution Discourse by the Vega Science Trust
★ - An after-dinner speech by Jocelyn Bell Burnell on her life and the discovery of pulsars
★ Royal Society citation
★ Transcript of interview by Joan Bakewell for the BBC Radio 3 series "Belief" (2 January 2006)
★ Gale - Free Resources: Article on Bell Burnell from ''Encyclopedia of World Biography'' 1998.
★ Four video clips in which Bell Burnell gives a brief answer to the following questions: Having made a monumental discovery in science, how does that affect one's latter career? What was the process for discovering pulsars? Were you looking for them based on a theory, or were you trying to clarify a phenomenon? Where are your research interests focussed at the moment?What future discoveries do you expect in Astronomy? (BBC/Open University Masters of Science website)
★ UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering Technology biographical webpage.
★ Biographical article, indicating Bell Burnell's beliefs and personal life, from California State Polytechnic University NOVA project.
★ Counterbalance Library: Bell Burnell talk “ Science and the Spiritual Quest” (24 Minutes)
★ Northern Star (TV Documentary on Jocelyn Bell Burnell's life)
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