Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Born: 1943

Country of Birth: Great Britain

Nationality: Great Britain

Ethnicity: White

University of Glasgow BSc Natural Philosophy (Physics) 1965; University of Cambridge PhD 1969

"You do not 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."

— Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Field of Study: Astrophysics

Institution/Corporation: University of Dundee; University of Bath; University of Cambridge; Open University; University of Oxford; Royal Observatory Edinburgh; University of Southampton; University College of London

Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: Guilford College (2021); Member: Royal Astronomical Society (President 2002-2004), Institute of Physics (President 2008-2010), Fellow Mansfield College (2007), Fellow Royal Society (2003), Fellow Royal Society of Edinburgh (2004), American Philosophical Society International Member (2016); Legacy Fellow American Astronomical Society (2020); Honorary Fellow Trinity College of Dublin (2020)

Awards: 2018, Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics; 2021, Copley Medal, Royal Society; 1978, J. Robert Oppenheimer Prize; 1986, Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize, American Astronomical Society; 1989, Herschel Medal, Royal Astronomical Society; 2010, Michael Faraday Prize; 2015, Royal Medal, Royal Society; 2018, Grande Medaille, French Academy of Sciences; 2021, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society; 2022, Prix Jules Janssen, Societe Astronomique de France; 1973, Albert A. Michelson Medal, Franklin Institute (with Anthong Hewish); 2011, Grote Reber Medal at the General Assembly International Union of Radio Scientists; 2015, The Women of the Year Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award; 2017, Institute of Physics President s Medal; 2021, Astronische Gesellschaft s Karl Schwarzschild Medal; 1999, Commander of the Order of the British Empire; 2007, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire; 2013, named 1 of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the UK, Women s Hour BBC Radio 4; 2014, named 1 of BBC,s 100 Women; 2020, 7 Important but Little-Known British Female Scientists, BBC; 2023, Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award, American Association of Physics Teachers; 2023, Cunningham Medal, Royal Irish Academy

Achievements: Discovered PSR B1919+21 in 1967(a rapidly rotating pulsing star later called a pulsar); co-discoverer of the 1st 4 pulsars; 2nd female recipient of the Copley Prize;2022 featured on Ulster Bank s 50 Pound bank note; even though she was the first to discover the pulsar, she was not awarded the Nobel prize in Physics 1974, the award went to her thesis advisor & 4 of his male colleagues instead;helped build the Interplanetary Scintillation Array which enabled the discovery of pulsars; 1st female president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2014-2018); 2008, 1st female president of the Institute of Physics for the UK & Ireland; 1 of a small group of female scientists who set up the Athena SWAN scheme to improve the lives of women in science; donated her entire $3,000,000 Breakthrough Prize money to help women in Physics careers