Careering Through Astronomy

Overview

This talk was by Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

About the Speaker

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has made many exceptional contributions to physics, as ground breaking researcher, as a leader of learned societies and as an inspirational ambassador for public engagement.

As a PhD student at Cambridge University, she was involved in opening up a new branch of astrophysics through her involvement in the discovery of pulsars, a particular class of neutron star. She has used telescopes flown on high altitude balloons, launched on rockets which carried satellites and built a radio telescope in Cambridgeshire.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a well-known figure in the world of public understanding of science and is a physicist who, while conducting research for her doctorate, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. This discovery later earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974, but she was not among the awardees.

Since that time, In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Following the announcement of the award, she decided to use the $3 million (£2.3 million) prize money to establish a fund to help female, minority and refugee students to become research physicists.  In 2021, Bell Burnell became the second female recipient (after Dorothy Hodgkin in 1976) of the Royal Society’s Copley Medal.

Jocelyn has served on many boards and panels throughout Europe, including serving as President of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics.

Following the presentation and Q&A, Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was presented with the Dalton Medal by President of the Manchester Li&Phil, Alan Wareham. The following is a copy of the Introduction and Presentation transcript.

INTRODUCTION

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I’m Alan Wareham, President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society known as Manchester Lit & Phil.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this evening’s Manchester Lit & Phil event, “Careering Through Astronomy.”

Our speaker, Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, is one of the most distinguished and admired scientists of our time.

In 1967, while still a postgraduate student at Cambridge, she noticed an unusual, and remarkably regular signal detected by a newly constructed radio telescope.

Her persistence in investigating that signal led to the discovery of the first radio pulsars and opened an entirely new field of astrophysics.

The importance of that discovery was recognised by the award of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics.

However, Professor Bell Burnell herself was not included among its recipients.

But scientific discovery is only part of her contribution.

Professor Bell Burnell has been an outstanding leader of the scientific community, serving as President of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics.

She has also become one of our finest communicators of science: thoughtful, engaging and deeply committed to widening participation.

In 2018, she received the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her role in discovering pulsars.

She then donated the entire three-million-dollar prize to establish a fund supporting women, refugees and students from other groups, under-represented in physics.

In 2021, she became only the second woman to receive the Royal Society’s Copley Medal.

That combination of intellectual brilliance, generosity and public service makes her not simply an exceptional scientist, but an exceptional human being.

The Manchester Lit & Phil was founded in 1781 to bring people together in the pursuit, and sharing of knowledge.

Nearly two and a half centuries later, Professor Bell Burnell exemplifies that purpose wonderfully.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in giving the warmest of Manchester welcomes to Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

PRESENTATION OF THE DALTON MEDAL

Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, ladies and gentlemen.

First, Professor Bell Burnell, may I thank you, on behalf of Manchester Lit&Phil and everyone here, for a fascinating and inspiring talk, and for answering our questions with such generosity.

Tonight, the Manchester Lit and Phil wishes to recognise your exceptional contribution to science by presenting you with its highest honour:  the Dalton Medal.

Before I do so, everybody knows John Dalton, but not everybody knows his connection with Manchester Lit and Phil.

John Dalton was born in Cumberland in 1766, into a modest Quaker family.

Largely self-taught, he came to Manchester in 1793 and joined Manchester Lit and Phil shortly afterwards.

One of the first papers he presented to the Manchester Lit & Phil concerned his own colour blindness. An investigation so influential that colour blindness was, for many years and in some countries still is, commonly called “Daltonism.”

Dalton’s greatest achievement, however, was his modern atomic theory.

In 1803, he first presented its principles here in Manchester, to the Manchester Lit & Phil. Dalton’s relationship with Manchester Lit and Phil was exceptionally close.

He became President of Manchester Lit and Phil in 1816 and remained in that office for 28 years, until his death in 1844. The longest-serving President in our history.

During his membership, he presented more than one hundred scientific papers to the Manchester Lit and Phil.

The John Dalton Medal is bestowed only rarely, upon those who have made a truly distinguished contribution to science.

Past recipients include;

Sir Ernest Rutherford, Sir Joseph Thomson & Sir Lawrence Bragg. Patrick Blackett, Dorothy Hodgkin & Sir Roger Penrose. Sir Bernard Lovell , Lord Rees of Ludlow & Sir Konstantin Novoselov and, most recently, Sir Paul Nurse.

Only sixteen Dalton Medals have previously been awarded in more than 125 years.

Professor Bell Burnell, your place in that company is richly deserved.

Your discovery of pulsars, your leadership of major scientific institutions and your remarkable work to make physics more open and inclusive have extended that contribution far beyond a single discovery.

Professor Bell Burnell, may I invite you to join me?

FORMAL PRESENTATION

It is therefore my enormous privilege, as President of the Manchester Lit&Phil, to present the John Dalton Medal to Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell.