Jocelyn Bell Burnell - Infinite Women

Born: 15 July 1943, United Kingdom
Died: NA
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA

The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, during her postgraduate studies at Cambridge, noticed an unusual pattern on her chart-recorder papers, where a peculiar signal seemed to move across the sky alongside the stars. This phenomenon first appeared in data from August, but due to the manual paper-checking process, it took her three months to locate it. Upon closer examination, she found that the signal pulsated regularly, approximately every one and a third seconds. Initially called “Little Green Man 1” (LGM-1), this mysterious source is now known as PSR B1919+21, identified as a rapidly spinning neutron star after several years of research.
The paper announcing the discovery of pulsars listed five authors. Antony Hewish, Bell’s thesis supervisor, was the first author, followed by Bell. Hewish was awarded the Nobel Prize, which he shared with astronomer Martin Ryle.
Bell played a crucial role in constructing the Interplanetary Scintillation Array over two years. She initially detected the anomaly, often reviewing up to 96 feet (29 m) of paper data per night. Despite initial skepticism from Hewish, who thought it might be interference or man-made, Bell persisted in reporting the anomaly. She also noted that she was excluded from meetings organized by Hewish and Ryle.
In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, a substantial prize worth three million dollars (£2.3 million), in recognition of her discovery of radio pulsars. Unlike the regular annual prize, this Special Prize is not limited to recent discoveries. Bell Burnell decided to donate the entire sum to support aspiring physics researchers from underrepresented backgrounds, including women, ethnic minorities, and refugees.