Physicist Bell Burnell to visit UConn this Friday 

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, known for her discovery of pulsars as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge in 1967, will be giving a lecture at the University of Connecticut this Friday, Nov. 8.  

The lecture is free to all students in the Student Union Theatre at 4 p.m. 

“Pulsars are a special type of neutron star, the rotating dense remnant of a massive star. Pulsars have highly magnetic surfaces and emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation along their poles,” said in an article by Cara Battersby.  

In 1974, Bell Burnell’s discovery of pulsars received a Nobel Prize in physics but she was excluded from receiving the award herself, Battersby said. Instead, her supervisor Anthony Hewish and astronomer Martin Ryle were awarded the prize.  

Last year, Bell Burnell was honored with a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, an award only given to four others, Battersby said. This 2018 award recognizes her original discovery of pulsars and the lifetime of work she has dedicated to physics. 

Caroline Cichocki, program assistant at UConn’s department of physics encourages students interested in physics to go see Bell Burnell’s lecture. 

“Dame Professor Bell Burnell is a powerful figure for women in science, and a source of admiration and inspiration for many in which we hope we can bring to the UConn community by hosting her lecture here this Friday,” Cichocki said.  

For students that cannot see the lecture on Friday, it will be live streamed and recorded by UCTV and available on their YouTube channel.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Institute of Physics @PhysicsNews on Twitter

Naiela Suleiman is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at naiela.suleiman@uconn.edu.