Photo Courtesy UNotes

The world renowned astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, talked to an audience of students and faculty Wednesday night in Wilde auditorium. Burnell, who was involved in the Nobel Prize winning discovery of pulsars, focused the majority of her lecture on the advancement of women in science.

Said Burnell, “I think if women are interested in an area they should go for it. You do need to be somewhat determined, don’t give up too easily and you’ve also got to be prepared to take some risks which sometimes women aren’t very comfortable with but take some risks and you maybe surprise yourself.”

While getting her doctorate at Cambridge University, Burnell detected the first sign of pulsars. Her supervisor was awarded the Nobel Prize for her work. Today, bell is the president of the institute of physics and an adjunct faculty member at Oxford. In June of 2007, bell received a DBE from the Queen of England, which the equivalent of a male knighthood.