Photo credit: University of Dundee
Burnell There’s still time to get a free ticket for this year’s Stephen Gray Lecture:
The University of Kent presents
The 7th Stephen Gray Lecture
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
“Astronomy and Poetry”
Many poets have written about astronomy and the night sky. Dame Jocelyn will select about half a dozen of these poems, give the scientific background and seek volunteer readers from the audience to read the poems. There will be a chance to look at the poems and discuss informally over tea an biscuits before the talk starts.
On 9 March 2023 at the University of Kent, Canterbury
Refreshments at 3:30pm for a 4pm start
Lecture finishes at 5pm
Everybody welcome!
Get your free ticket at
If you have any queries please contact Dr Jorge Quintanilla, 01227 816024, j.quintanilla@kent.ac.uk
About the Speaker
Jocelyn Bell Burnell inadvertently discovered pulsars as a graduate student in radio astronomy in Cambridge, opening up a new branch of astrophysics – work recognised by the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor.
She has subsequently worked in many roles in many branches of astronomy, working part-time while raising a family. She is now a Visiting Academic in Oxford, and the Chancellor of the University of Dundee, Scotland. She has been President of the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society, in 2008 became the first female President of the Institute of Physics for the UK and Ireland, and in 2014 the first female President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was one of the small group of women scientists that set up the Athena SWAN scheme.
She has received many honours, including a $3M Breakthrough Prize in 2018.
The public appreciation and understanding of science have always been important to her, and she is much in demand as a speaker and broadcaster. In her spare time, she gardens, listens to choral music and is active in the Quakers. She has co-edited an anthology of poetry with an astronomical theme – ‘Dark Matter; Poems of Space’.
About the Stephen Gray Lectures
The Stephen Gray Lecture is an annual event organised by the Division of Natural Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury. The title of this series of lectures celebrates one of our local science heroes. Stephen Gray was a humble dyer from Canterbury who went on to make important contributions to several branches of science – including early systematic studies of solar activity and seminal experiments demonstrating the conduction of electricity. An extensive set of links where you can learn more about this crucial part of our scientific heritage, as well as videos of previous Stephen Gray Lectures, can be found at the Stephen Gray Lectures homepage: