Interview with Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, FRS, FRAS is a British astrophysicist. As a postgraduate student in radio astronomy in 1967, she discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish, for which Hewish shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. She has been a major inspiration for me becoming a physicist and I was fortunate enough to meet this wonderful lady and ask her a few questions.

When I was about 9 years old I picked up my first book about astronomy. Soon, this turned into an obsession and I ended up reading many of those whether they were about various astrophysical objects, basic physics phenomena, other popular science or the history of astronomy and space exploration. What kid would not be impressed? Later, I joined the Zlin Astronomical Society and started practicing amateur astronomy with many other wonderful like-minded people.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell with radio telescopes, UK

It did not take me long to figure out there was a huge deficit of female role models in science. Besides obvious names such as Marie Curie-Sklodowska (and her daughter), Rosalind Franklin or Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who formulated the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variable stars starting a revolution in measurement distances in astronomy, it was Jocelyn Bell Burnell, which was the name that truly stuck with me. Jocelyn and her life story became a true inspiration for me and my future in science. One could say, she became my idol, and how many kids do get to meet their idols when they grow up? Well, I was incredibly lucky!

When I started my degree in Physics at Imperial College London, I joined the Institute of Physics as a student member. During my time in London I was invited to one of their meetings where Jocelyn was a speaker, talking about her discoveries and life in radio astronomy. I remember I was almost overwhelmed by her strong personality. I was there and talking to someone I knew and worshipped from books! Years later, while at Oxford, even more remarkable experience came my way. It was when I won the bronze medal at the SET fro Britain competition in 2011, when my prize was awarded by no one else but Jocelyn Bell Burnell. A moment I will never be able to forget! I felt like sharing a piece of my experience of meeting Jocelyn by publishing an interview with this remarkable lady.

Me with Jocelyn at SET for Britain Awards Ceremony, March 2011

 

Jocelyn Bell

Jocelyn graduated from the University of Glasgow with a B.Sc. in Physics in 1965, and completed her Ph.D. from New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) of the University of Cambridge in 1969. At Cambridge, she worked with Hewish and others to construct a radio telescope for using interplanetary scintillation to study quasars. It was there, when she made her historical discovery of the first pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars. Hewish and Martin Ryle have been awarded a Nobel prize for this discovery without the inclusion of Bell. This decision has stoked a lot of contorversy and was fully condemned by many prominent scienists including Sir Fred Hoyle or Stephen Hawking.

In 1991, she was appointed as a Professor of Physics at the Open University, a position that she held for ten years. She was also a visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States. Before retiring, she was Dean of Science at the University of Bath (2001-04). She is currently a Visiting Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Mansfield College. Jocelyn Bell Burnell served as the President of the British Institute of Physics, her term ended in October 2011.  She was the President of the Royal Astronomical Society between 2002 and 2004.

 Dame Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, FRS, FRAS

As one of the first successful women to enter the field of Physics, you are celebrated for your contributions to Astrophysics, in particular the discovery of pulsar stars. What made you want to become an Astronomer/Astrophysicist?

As soon as we started science at school (about age 12) it was clear that I was good at physics, but I wasn't sure what branch of physics to go into until a few years later when my father brought home some astronomy books from the Public Library. I read those books from cover to cover, realised that the physics I was learning at school could be used to study stars and galaxies, and was hooked!

After your long and colourful scientific career, what brought you to Oxford?

When I reached retirement (from being a Dean of Science at the University of Bath) the Physics Dept in Oxford asked if I would like to be a Visiting Professor - who could refuse that?

What are the highlights of your current work?

I am now retired and no longer doing my own research, but am trying to keep up with everybody else's! I also do a lot of public lectures and a lot of committee work, all as a volunteer. And I seem to be busier than ever!

You acted as a graduate welfare representative at the Astrophysics department at Oxford, did you enjoy working with the students? How do young female research students and their views compare to when you were a student yourself?

I am still the Astrophysics Graduate Student Ombudsman (but have had very little to do in that role). I also teach the graduate students about Gravitational Radiation, which is fun. I believe Gravitational Radiation is one of the up and coming areas of astrophysics.

Have you ever been to the Czech Republic? Did you enjoy your stay?

Yes, I have had a very memorable visit to Prague - I spent two weeks there in the summer of 2006 when the International Astronomical Union was meeting there. It was at that meeting that the planet Pluto was declared to be a dwarf planet, no longer a major planet. I facilitated those sessions, so it was professionally a very memorable time. I also enjoyed renting an apartment in the city, shopping and cooking for myself, going to an orchestral concert and exploring the historic city.

Katerina Falk