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Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell inadvertently discovered pulsars as a graduate student in radio astronomy in Cambridge, opening up a new branch of astrophysics - work recognised by the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor.
Jocelyn has subsequently worked in many roles in many branches of astronomy, working part-time while raising a family. She is now a Visiting Academic in Oxford, and the Chancellor of the University of Dundee. She has been President of the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society, in 2008 became the first female President of the Institute of Physics for the UK and Ireland, and in 2014 the first female President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was also one of the small group of women scientists that set up the Athena SWAN scheme.
Photo credit: Royal Society of Edinburgh
“I am grateful to the University of East Anglia for this exceptional honour and am delighted to be associated with the University and the city of Norwich in this way. My previous links with the University have been interesting and enjoyable, and I look forward to a continuing relationship.”