Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, Science & Medicine, Debrett's 500 2016, People of Influence

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE

Astrophysicist and President, Royal Society of Edinburgh

Leading astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell is the first female president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy of Science and Letters. While completing her PhD at Cambridge, Bell Burnell discovered pulsars, rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. It proved to be one of the most significant discoveries of the 20th century. Bell Burnell became interested in astronomy as a child in Northern Ireland, where her father was an architect for the Armagh Observatory. She has taught at universities including Oxford, Southampton, Bath, Princeton and the Open University, and was president of the Royal Astronomical Society for four years. She is aware of her status as a role model as a female scientist, saying it is ‘important, just to show there are women doing science, enjoying it and being good at it’. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Prudential Women of the Year Awards in 2015.