Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell made one of the most important astronomical discoveries of the 20th century while still a graduate student at Cambridge. In 1967, analyzing data from a radio telescope she had helped build, she noticed a peculiar repeating signal — a regular pulse every 1.337 seconds, far too precise to be natural noise. Initially dubbed "LGM-1" (Little Green Men), the signal turned out to be a rapidly rotating neutron star — a pulsar. Bell Burnell soon found three more pulsars, establishing them as a new class of astronomical objects. The discovery confirmed the theoretical prediction that neutron stars exist and opened an entirely new branch of astronomy. Controversially, the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery went to her supervisor Antony Hewish and to Martin Ryle, but not to Bell Burnell herself. She has been remarkably gracious about the omission, saying she believes the Nobel committee made the right decision given the conventions of the time. She was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in 2018 and donated the entire £2.3 million to fund physics scholarships for underrepresented groups.

• Discovered pulsars (1967) — rapidly rotating neutron stars • Found four pulsars, establishing them as a new class of object • Discovery confirmed the existence of neutron stars • Awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Physics (2018) • Her discovery opened the field of pulsar astronomy