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Joscelyn Bell Burnell, a Belfast born astrophysicist, recently received the prestigious Breakthrough Award in Fundamental Physics for a discovery she made about 50 years ago. The 75-year-old scientist also received the $ 3 million prize she gave for the good of science.
Young Bell Burnell was the first scientist to detect a pulsar, the neutron stars that emit electromagnetic radiation from their poles. She achieved this feat in 1967 at the University of Cambridge. However, she has not been recognized for the work she has accomplished. On the contrary, his supervisor ended up receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974 for this research. Jocelyn Bell Burnell was neglected. The story of Bell Burnell proves that women face gender inequality in the field of science.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born in Northern Ireland in 1943. Since she's small, she has to fight for her rights. After 12 years, she has to fight to take science classes.
"The assumption was that boys would do science and that girls would do cooking and needlework." It was such a firm assumption that we did not even talk about it. so there was no choice, "said the Washington Post.
In her first year at the University of Glasgow, Jocelyn would have been the only woman in the honors class in physics. She had to deal with student harassment every time she was walking in the conference room. She said that she had learned not to be shy or blush because if she blushed, the rowdy had just become stronger. When she came to Cambridge, she noticed that although sexism is more subtle; it was very present.
In 1968, Bell Burnell and his supervisor published an article mentioning their discoveries related to the discovery of pulsar. As expected, the newspaper has been very popular around the world. However, the media did not know how to manage a female scientist, who was at the center of a huge scientific breakthrough. Then, in 1974, his supervisor Hewish received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars".
It took her decades to get the recognition she deserved. Now the scientist has decided to give all the money the prize to the Institute of Physics (IOP). This money will be used to fund scholarships for under-represented groups in the scientific fields.
"This award is an excellent and very appropriate recognition of Jocelyn's work.Its discovery of pulsars is still one of the most important discoveries in physics and inspires scientists from around the world," said at the Independent. Professor Dame Higgins.
The press release indicated that the breakthrough prize was awarded to Bell Burnell's "fast and super-dynamic neutron star detection of radio signals and an inspiring scientific leadership experiment" in 1967.
The Breakthrough Prize honors the great minds of science. Many pillars of science, such as Stephen Hawking, had received this award. CERN researchers, as well as the LIGO collaboration, received this award for discovering the Higgs boson and detecting gravitational waves, respectively.
"Increasing the diversity of physics could lead to all sorts of good things," said Jocelyn.
However, this is not his first reward or achievement. Bell Burnell, visiting professor of astronomy at Oxford University, was the first woman president of the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In addition, in 2007 she became the Order of the Lady Commander of the British Empire.
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