Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Major contributions

• Built, with colleagues, and operated a large radio array at Cambridge, and in August 1967 identified an unusual “scruff” in many metres of chart paper that proved to be a regular pulsed radio source, later named PSR B1919+21 with a period of 1.337 seconds (see Pulsars)
• Insisted on investigating the anomaly rather than dismissing it as interference, and, with Hewish, helped show that it was extraterrestrial and not artificial; within months she found three further pulsars
• Her discovery opened the observational study of neutron stars (see Neutron Stars), including later tests of general relativity using binary pulsars
• Later worked in X-ray, gamma-ray and infrared astronomy, and as an advocate for women and under-represented groups in physics

Named concepts

Career

Bell was born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. She studied physics at the University of Glasgow (BSc 1965) and then moved to Cambridge for doctoral research under Antony Hewish, completing her PhD in 1969. She later held posts at the University of Southampton, University College London, the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, and the Open University, where she was professor of physics, and was a visiting professor at Oxford. She served as president of the Institute of Physics (2008–2010) and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2014–2018).

The signal she noticed was initially called “LGM-1” (Little Green Men) half-jokingly, as the team considered a possible artificial origin before finding further pulsars at different positions and periods. The discovery was published in Nature in February 1968 with Hewish as first author and Bell as second.

Key publications

• Hewish, A., Bell, S.J., Pilkington, J.D.H., Scott, P.F., Collins, R.A. (1968). “Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source.” Nature, 217, 709–713.
• Bell Burnell, S.J. (1977). “Petit Four.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 302, 685–689 (a personal account of the discovery).

Nobel Prize

The 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics, with Hewish cited for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars. Bell Burnell was not included. Several prominent astronomers, notably Fred Hoyle, publicly criticised the omission. Bell Burnell herself has said in public remarks that she did not feel the decision was wrong, and has not campaigned for it to be revisited. In 2018 she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (US$3 million) and donated the whole sum to the Institute of Physics to fund scholarships for women, under-represented ethnic minorities and refugees studying physics.

Historical context

The case is often discussed together with those of Vera Rubin and Lise Meitner as an example of how prize decisions have not always matched contributions, and as a prompt to think about the position of research students in large teams. The Nobel committee's rules limit a prize to three people and favour leaders of groups. Whether the omission was an injustice is a matter on which the participants and historians have expressed different views, and the Codex records that debate without taking a position. The discovery itself is secure: pulsars are now known by the thousands (see Supernovae for their birth), and the Hulse–Taylor binary pulsar later supported gravitational radiation (see Gravitational Waves).