Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell CH DBE FRS FRSE FInstP has been admitted to the degree of Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by the University of Sydney. 

She was honoured at a ceremony on Tuesday, October 14 for her eminent contributions to the field of astrophysics, advocacy of under-represented students in the STEMM disciplines and as an inspirational role model for women in science.

The ceremony was presided over by Pro-Chancellor Dr Lisa McIntyre and Emeritus Professor Anne Green, who paid tribute to Dame Jocelyn’s extraordinary career.  

"For more than 50 years, Jocelyn has been one of the world’s most recognised and respected astronomers," Professor Green said. 

"With often little encouragement, she has worked in many roles in astronomy, as an academic at several universities, including the University of Southampton, University College London, the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, as well as undertaking several positions at the Open University, including a decade as Professor of Physics. 

"In all these appointments, she has been an inspiring, caring and dedicated teacher."

Dame Jocelyn graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Philosophy (physics) with honours and completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1969. 

She first rose to prominence as a post-graduate student in 1967 while working on the Interplanetary Scintillation Array, an instrument she helped build just outside Cambridge.

Her careful determination to understand an anomaly in the data and her dedication and persistence in the face of scepticism from her supervisor Antony Hewish resulted in the discovery of pulsars, an experimental result that changed the field of radio astronomy forever.

Some years later, pulsars were identified as extraterrestrial objects, rapidly rotating neutron stars that had been predicted theoretically decades earlier. Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle were awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics, Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars.

Controversially, Dame Jocelyn was not included in the citation as she was a graduate student. This decision continues to be debated today. 

Pulsars have subsequently been used to test theories of fundamental physics, including Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in extreme environments, to probe the interstellar medium of our galaxy, and to search for gravitational waves. They are the most precise clocks in the universe and have been used to calibrate Earth’s clocks.

Pulsars also provide an important link to the University of Sydney. By 1978, the Molonglo Radio Telescope had discovered over 150 pulsars, half of the total number of such objects known at that time.

The first connection that pulsars arise from the explosions of massive stars was made at Molonglo by Large, Vaughan & Mills in 1968 for the Vela supernova remnant.