Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund: 2023 awardees announced

Ten physics PhD students from across the UK have today been unveiled as the awardees of this year’s Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund.

The fund was set up by leading physicist Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the Institute of Physics (IOP) in 2019 after Dame Jocelyn was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her role in the discovery of pulsars.

Dame Jocelyn immediately donated her entire £2.3m prize award to the IOP. Her aim was to help counter what she described as “the unconscious bias that still exists in physics research”, adding: “I don’t need the money myself, and it seemed to me that this was perhaps the best use I could put it to.”

The fund aims to improve diversity in physics by offering doctoral scholarships to students from groups currently underrepresented in the physics research community.

Those eligible include women, people with refugee status, ethnic minorities, disabled or financially disadvantaged students – and others who would otherwise struggle to complete a course of postgraduate study due to their circumstances.

To date, the fund has enabled 31 students to pursue PhDs.

Rachel Youngman, Deputy Chief Executive of the IOP, said: “This year I am delighted that we have been able to continue the amazing legacy of Dame Jocelyn in supporting 10 incredibly promising students in furthering their studies and building their careers in physics.

“We desperately need physicists to help us meet the challenges of the next industrial age; whether that is in helping make nuclear fusion a viable source of energy production, exploiting the opportunities of quantum computing or helping design faster, smaller and more powerful semiconductors.

“Wherever we look there are problems that need physicists to help solve them and the more diverse we can make the population of physics researchers and innovators the more effective and creative it will be.

“The fund set up by Dame Jocelyn is already helping to achieve this. To date, it has enabled 31 students to embark upon a physics PhD, helping them to start their journey to a rewarding and exciting career.

“Already students who have been supported are working across the UK in academia and business helping us solve some of the most important challenges of our times, in low-carbon energy, medical sciences, computing and many, many other areas.

“This is wonderful news for those awarded grants, who deserve the highest congratulations, but it is also already making an impact on all of our lives thanks to the science it is supporting and will continue to do so for many years to come.”

Professor Helen Gleeson, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Leeds and IOP Representative to Council for Inclusion and Diversity, is the Chair of the Fund Committee.

She said: “Every year the standard of applications for this fund gets higher and higher and the 10 successful applicants have all done incredibly well.

“There is no doubt that physics will provide the scientific applications and solutions to so many of the problems we face in our society and economy today and these Bell Burnell award winners will be at the very heart of that work.

“I wish them all the best in their future work and will watch their careers with interest!”

The 2023 awardees are:

Alix Freckelton, studying at the University of Birmingham

Astra Sword, studying at The Open University (interview coming soon)

Clara Cafolla-Ward, studying at Cardiff University 

Karolina Szewczyk, studying at the University of Leeds 

Lauren Muir, studying at the University of Glasgow 

Raymond Isichei, studying at Imperial College London 

Rojita Buddhacharya, studying at Liverpool John Moores University 

Sinéad Mannion, studying at Queen’s University Belfast 

Xinran Yang, studying at Imperial College London