Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in the King’s Birthday Honours List 2025 for her services to astronomy and physics and to diversity. The Companion of Honour is a special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine or government with only 65 members of the order at any one time.
In 1967, she co-discovered the first pulsar and in doing so, opened up a whole new discipline within astronomy. She has worked at leading institutions throughout her career from serving as a project manager for the construction of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope to Head of Department at the Open University. She has also served terms as President of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Professor Dame Bell Burnell CH is a world-leading science communicator and is an unwavering advocate for widening participation. She is one of the founders of the Athena SWAN initiative that addresses gender inequality in higher education and research and is committed to creating transformative educational and research opportunities for under-represented minorities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.