Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell CH

Honorary Fellow; Visiting Professor of Astrophysics, University of Oxford
 
As a postgraduate student, Bell Burnell discovered the first radio pulsars while studying and advised by her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish.  Hewish subsequently shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with astronomer Martin Ryle, and her omission from the award was globally criticised.  

She was President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004, President of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010, and was interim President following the death of her successor in early 2011. 

Bell Burnell was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2014 to 18, and recalled as Interim President for 6 months in 2021.  She has served as a Pro-Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin 2013 – 18, as Chancellor of the University of Dundee 2019 – 24, and is currently Rector of Brunel University (2025 - ). She was appointed CH in 2025.