Royal Society of Edinburgh elects Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

The outstanding astrophysicist and prominent science communicator Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE, FRS, FRSE, MRIA is the new President-elect of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). The election follows a ballot of all RSE Fellows which saw an overwhelming response in favour of her nomination. She succeeds Sir John Arbuthnott MRIA, PRSE, since October.
Professor Dame Jocelyn is best known for discovering pulsars, one of the most significant scientific achievements of the twentieth century. These rapidly spinning neutron stars are formed in supernova explosions, the phenomena which …