News Release

Astronomer to discuss pulsars, 
her career in science in two lectures

CHAPEL HILL — Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an astronomer who at age 24 discovered the first pulsar – one of the most remarkable astronomical discoveries of modern times – will speak Oct. 25 and Oct. 28 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bell Burnell will give two free public lectures to the Carolina community, the first focusing on her life as a scientist and the second focusing on pulsar research. On Oct. 25, Bell Burnell will discuss "The Human Dimension in Scientific Discovery" at 7:30 p.m. in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium. On Oct. 28, she will discuss "In Pursuit of Pulsars" at 7 p.m. in the Banquet Hall of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

In addition to public presentations, Bell Burnell will meet with students in physics and astronomy and women’s studies.

A native of Northern Ireland, Bell Burnell is a visiting professor in astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the Royal Society and National Academy of Sciences. She also is a professorial fellow at Mansfield College in Oxford.

Bell Burnell pursued her graduate studies at the University of Cambridge, earning a doctorate in radio astronomy. In 1968, she was a doctoral student monitoring radio transmissions at a Cambridge telescope when she first discovered pulsars, opening up a new branch of astrophysics. Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars that send out regular bursts of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation. Her adviser, Dr. Anthony Hewish, received the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery.

A former president of the Royal Astronomical Society and recipient of its Herschel Medal, Bell Burnell has used telescopes flown on high-altitude balloons, launched on rockets and carried on satellites. She built a radio telescope in Cambridgeshire. She has received numerous honors, including the Edinburgh Medal for services to science and society in 1999. That same year, Bell Burnell toured Australia, giving the Women in Physics Lecture.

Bell Burnell said she hopes her presence as a senior woman in science will encourage more women to consider careers in science. After three years as a dean of science at the University of Bath, she "retired" in 2004 and took a visiting professorship at Oxford.

Bell Burnell’s visit is sponsored by UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, the department of physics and astronomy, the Curriculum in Women’s Studies and the Charles M. and Shirley F. Weiss Endowment Fund for Women’s Studies.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/bell_burnell_jocelyn.jpg

College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-4093 or spurrk@email.unc.edu

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center contact: Karen Kornegay, (919) 843-7952 or kck@unc.edu