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Women in Science

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b.1943)

Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell is best know for her discovery of pulsars, celestial objects that emit pulses of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation, as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge in 1967. She also helped build the radio telescope which provided the lense for her discovery. She co-published her findings in 1968 with astronomer Anthony Hewish, who oversaw the graduate students' radio telescope work, and in 1974 he along with another collaborator were awarded a Nobel Prize for the discovery. Burnell has always looked past the slight, and has continued to work as a scientist and educator. She was recently awarded (and subsequently donated to charity in the U.k. that supports the work of physics students) a 3 million dollar special breakthrough prize in Fundamental Physics for her contribution to the field as well as her for her role as a leader and role model. 

Source: Drake, Nadia. "Meet the Woman Who Found the Most Useful Stars in the Universe." National Geographic, 6 Sept. 2018. Accessed 19 Feb. 2019.

 

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