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Pulsar discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins $3-million Breakthrough Prize

Astrophysicist plans to spend prize money — awarded 50 years after the discovery — on increasing diversity in science.
  1. Zeeya Merali
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Fifty years after discovering pulsars — compact rotating stars that emit beams of radiation — astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been awarded one of the most lucrative prizes in science: a US$3-million Breakthrough prize. Thought by many to have been snubbed for a Nobel prize for the discovery1, Bell Burnell, 75, has been recognized by the Breakthrough committee with a special award in fundamental physics for both her scientific achievements and her “inspiring leadership” over the past five decades.

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Nature 561, 161 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06210-w

References

  1. Hewish, A., Bell. S. J., Pilkington, J. D. H., Scott, P. F. & Collins, R. A. Nature 217, 709–713 (1968).

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  2. Mingarelli, C. M. F. et al. Nature Astron. 1, 886-892 (2017).

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