Leadership and Widening Access

Bell Burnell has worked across radio, X-ray, gamma-ray, and infrared astronomy and led major scientific institutions, including the Royal Astronomical Society, Institute of Physics, and Royal Society of Edinburgh.

She directed the money from her Special Breakthrough Prize toward scholarships for physics students from groups underrepresented in the field. The decision connected recognition of her own work with a practical effort to change who gets the opportunity to enter science.