Hello.
Here are Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell's own words on this subject:
"It has been suggested that I should have had a part in the Nobel
Prize awarded to Tony Hewish for the discovery of pulsars. There are
several comments that I would like to make on this: First, demarcation
disputes between supervisor and student are always difficult, probably
impossible to resolve. Secondly, it is the supervisor who has the
final responsibility for the success or failure of the project. We
hear of cases where a supervisor blames his student for a failure, but
we know that it is largely the fault of the supervisor. It seems only
fair to me that he should benefit from the successes, too. Thirdly, I
believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research
students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this
is one of them. Finally, I am not myself upset about it - after all, I
am in good company, am I not!"
source: "Little Green Men, White Dwarfs or Pulsars?" by Jocelyn Bell
Burnell, hosted by bigear.org
http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/burnell.htm
Additional sources:
" Anthony Hewish was awarded the Noble Prize in physics for the
discovery of pulsars in 1974. A controversy arose because many people
felt that Bell should have received or at least shared in the Nobel
Prize. However, even to this day, Jocelyn is not upset that she did
not receive a Nobel Prize. She believes that Hewish deserved the
award because he did help her understand the pulsar discovery and did
have more experience in the field than she did. She is thankful for
the experience Anthony Hewish gave her."
source: "Jocelyn Bell Burnell, An accomplished woman scientist,"
hosted by immaculata.edu:
http://www.immaculata.edu/bioinformatics/eharmon/burnell.htm
"But after all this excitement had subsided, Antony Hewish won a Nobel
Prize for 'his' discovery. This upset many people, as Bell-Burnell had
been a major factor in the observations, and the discoverer, if not
the ultimate identifier. Burnell-Bell adopted something of a
rebellious stance. She wrote up her thesis paper (which did not
mention pulsars at all), and left Cambridge. "
source: BBC "The Discovery of Pulsars"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A882218
" In 1967 Jocelyn Bell discovered the first pulsar. Because she was a
graduate student at the time, her advisor (Anthony Hewish) was given a
share of the 1974 Nobel Prize instead of her."
source: "NASA: Ask A High Energy Astronomer"
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980227a.html
" Perhaps the Nobel Prize committee overlooked her because she was not
producing scientific papers as regularly as her male colleagues and
did not realise the part she had played as a postgraduate student in
the discovery."
Source: "Scientist of the Month: Jocelyn Bell Burnell," hosted by
longman.co.uk:
http://www.longman.co.uk/tt_secsci/resources/scimon/jan_01/bell.htm
'it was Antony Hewish who received a Nobel Prize in Physics for "the
discovery of pulsars".(Martens, 1996) Despite considerable
documentation to prove Bell actually discovered the pulsar, the Nobel
Foundation ignored her and gave the prestigious award to Hewish.
This is only one example of the contributions women have made to
science today that have gone largely unnoticed, and is evidence for a
hierarchical bias.(Prewitt, 1995) On the broad level of general areas
of study, `hard' sciences such as physics and chemistry are considered
to be more prestigious than `softer' sciences like psychology and
social science. Even within a science, there exists a ladder-like
structure, with more importance placed on the higher levels and
positions. Leaders, having superiority, generate the ideas, and then
delegate the tasks to be performed. This hierarchical structure, and
its associated reward system is often reflected in the authorship of
papers. Graduate and postdoctoral students are usually listed as
co-authors, but if the work is noteworthy, the scientific community
believes that the credit should be given to the person in the superior
position, namely the lab chief.(Shepherd, p.126) The contributions of
Antony Hewish's team members were acknowledged, yet it was he alone
who received the critical acclaim of a Nobel Prize.
It is interesting to note the lack of representation of women in the
list of Nobel Prize winners. From 1901 to 1996, only two women have
received a Nobel Prize in Physics, both sharing half of a divided
prize with one of their peers.(Stanford, 1996)'
source: "Pulsars + Jocelyn Bell = An Astronomical Injustice," hosted
by mta.ca:
http://aci.mta.ca/courses/physics/1001/Misc/StudentPapers97/Bell.html
'the Nobel Committee the following... did not acknowledge her role in
the discovery of pulsars when it awarded Sir Martin Ryle and Anthony
Hewish the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their pioneering research
in radio astrophysics. Ryle for his observations and inventions... and
Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars".
Many distinguished astronomers including Sir Frederick Hoyle, Thomas
Gold, and Jeremiah Ostriker have expressed the view that Burnell
should have been awarded the Nobel Prize with Hewish and Ryle.'
source: PROFESSSOR JOCELYN BELL BURNELL, CIRS
http://www.cirs.net/researchers/Astronomy/BELL%20BURNELL.htm
--------
It's not too late, of course, for Prof. Bell-Burnell to still get a
Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Prize in physics is determined by a committee of the Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences.
http://www.kva.se/KVA_Root/eng/awards/nobel/nobelprizes/nomination.asp
Nominations are taken from "thousands of scientists, members of
academies and university professors in numerous countries."
Contact information:
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
P.O. Box 50005, SE-104 05 Stockholm, SWEDEN
Phone: +46 8 673 95 00, Fax: +46 8 15 56 70, E-mail: info@kva.se
search strategy:
"jocelyn bell", nobel, pulsars, "should have"
I hope this helps. |
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