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Introduction

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a astrophysicist, and she was the first to discover radio pulsars when she was a graduate student. Burnell helped find a major discovery for physics and astronomy. Burnell made the discovery around 1967. Burnell initially did not get awarded for discovery as it was her supervisors and male colleagues that won the Nobel prize.

Early Life

Burnell was born in July 15 1943. She was born in Lurgan, Ireland. Her father, Phillip Bell, helped helped build the Amagh Planetarium. When Burnell was young she would pay visits to the planetarium, and was influenced to pursue astronomy by the people that worked there. At a young age she read her father's astronomy books. From early on Burnell experienced the difficulty for women in education. Burnell was not allowed to study science at Lurgan college until her parents had protested. Burnell was moved to a Quaker boarding school in York, England. There she met a very influential professor that helped sparked her dream in astronomy.  

Career

After finding her passion, Burnell graduated with a bachelor's in physics at University of Glasgow in 1965. In 1969 she had obtained her doctorates at university of Cambridge. It was at University of Cambridge where Burnell had discovered the first radio pulsar. Pulsar emit from a type of star called a neutron star. By finding being the first to discover a radio pulsar, Burnell had also been the first to discover neutron stars. Neutron stars help agronomists get a better understanding of the Universe, since they can be researched. Her supervisor and colleagues were also working on the project. It took Burnell 3 months to find the pulsar since, she had to spend hours looking at the recorded data by hand. Burnell had worked at multiple universities and now is a professor at Oxford University.

Prizes

When Burnell discovered the pulsars, her colleagues and supervisor soon saw it for themselves. At first they believed it to be a mistake, but when they realized it was an error Burnell's supervisor and colleagues had won the nobel prize for the breakthrough for science. Even Burnell had made the discovery first she was not rewarded for her hard work at the time. Burnell would still be recognized for her achievements as she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2018. Burnell claimed that she was alright with not getting the Nobel prize since she was a research student, and donated the prize money to women and minorities in physics.  

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