Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Scientist Robbed of Nobel in 1974 Finally Wins $3 Million Physics Prize - And Gives It Away

Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, shown here in 2011, discovered the radio pulsar when she was a graduate student.

Credit: Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty Images

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is responsible for one of the most important astrophysics discoveries of the 20th century: the radio pulsar. The discovery, which she made as graduate student, earned a Nobel Prize in 1974. And it could one day form the basis of a "galactic positioning system" for navigating outside our solar system.

But Bell Burnell didn't collect the Nobel. Instead, as NPR reported, the award went to her supervisor at the University of Cambridge, Antony Hewish — who had built the necessary radio telescope with her but didn't discover the pulsar./.../
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The one about the woman who discovered pulsars

Jocelyn Bell Burnell was a graduate student at Cambridge when she noticed an anomaly in her data: a faint, repeating signal. The source? A pulsar, the remains of a violent star death. The discovery of the pulsar revolutionized astrophysics, and now Bell Burnell has been awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics. Lisa Grossman talked to Bell Burnell about pulsars, her life in science and the diversity initiatives she’ll be donating her prize money to. (My hot take: Bell Burnell is amazing.)