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Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who won a special prize in fundamental physics on Thursday for her work in pulsar discovery, wants money to help people from under-represented groups get into the world of physics.
Bell Burnell, who was neglected for the Nobel Prize in 1974 while his male colleagues received the award, was also honored for his leadership.
"I found pulsars because I was a minority and I felt a little overwhelmed in Cambridge.I was both female and from the northwestern part of the country and I think that everything the world around me was southern English ".
"So I have this intuition that minorities bring a new angle to things and that it's often a very productive thing.In general, many breakthroughs come from the left-wing realm."
The 75-year-old, born in Northern Ireland, studied at the University of Cambridge where she made the breakthrough discovery of pulsars as a graduate student in the mid-1960s.
The statement by the Breakthrough Award Selection Committee described pulsars as "wonders of nature." They are San Francisco-sized stars with masses comparable to those of the Sun.They are rich in neutrons (particles present in the nucleus of atoms) their surfaces are moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. "
Edward Witten, chairman of the selection committee, said in a statement that Bell Burnell's discovery was "one of the big surprises in the history of astronomy".
"Until that moment, no one had a real idea of how neutron stars could be observed, if they existed." Suddenly, nature provided an incredibly accurate way to observe these objects.
"Parallel to his scientific achievements, Jocelyn has become an extremely respected leader in the scientific community, helping to make the issue of access to science by people from under-represented groups the priorities of the scientific community ". Higgins added in a statement.
"We, at IOP, are delighted to receive this gift from Jocelyn and look forward to working with her to develop a program that opens the doors of physics to people from all walks of life."
Bell Burnell, former IOP President, will receive his award at a ceremony on November 4th.
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