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Dame (Susan) Jocelyn Bell Burnell
1 of 20 portraits by Julia Hedgecoe
© Julia Hedgecoe / National Portrait Gallery, London
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Dame (Susan) Jocelyn Bell Burnell
by Julia Hedgecoe
bromide print, 1997
11 1/2 in. x 15 3/8 in. (293 mm x 391 mm)
Purchased, 1999
Primary Collection
NPG P751(3)
Sitterback to top
- Dame (Susan) Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943-), Physicist and radio astronomer. Sitter in 2 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- 100 Pioneering Women, p. 136 Read entry
Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b.1943) is an astrophysicist, best known for the discovery of pulsars – rotating neutron stars that appear to pulse as the beam of light they emit can only be seen when it faces the Earth. She made the finding, considered to be one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the twentieth century, while still a postgraduate, and despite being named in the research paper, it was Bell Burnell’s supervisor, Antony Hewish, and another researcher, Martin Ryle, who went on to win the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Between 2002 and 2004, Bell Burnell served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society, the second woman to hold the post in the institution’s almost 200-year history. She was the first female president of the Institute of Physics and in 2015 she won the Royal Society’s Royal Medal for her contribution to the observation and understanding of pulsars. She has spoken about the need for a ‘culture change’ in the English-speaking world to enable and encourage young women to get involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.
- Flavia Frigeri, Women At Work: 1900 to Now, 2023, p. 96
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 48
Placesback to top
- Place made: United Kingdom: England, London (sitter's Open University office, London)
Events of 1997back to top
Current affairs
The Labour party - re-branded as New Labour - win a spectacular landslide election and Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister. Their electoral campaign promised that 'things can only get better' and that their priorities would be 'education, education, education.' While New Labour's 'third way' centralist approach put off some party traditionalists, it secured the popular vote.Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed die in a car crash in Paris.
Art and science
J.K. Rowling publishes Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first of seven fantasy books chronicling the life of Harry and his friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: learning magic, breaking school rules, romantic entanglements and their struggles against the evil Lord Voldemort.Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announce that they have cloned the first mammal from an adult cell: '6LL3', or Dolly the Sheep.
International
Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten hands the island back to China after one hundred and fifty years as a British Colony. Although sovereignty was restored to China, it was agreed that the Island would become a 'Special Administrative Region' under the 'One Country, Two Systems' principle, effectively keeping its capitalist economy and way of life for a period of 50 years.Comments back to top
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