Election honour for Dean of Science

Professor Bell-Burnell is one of nine new fellows at the Royal Society

A Bath university professor who failed the 11-plus is one of 42 new Fellows elected to the Royal Society.

Professor Jocelyn Bell-Burnell of the Somerset-based university, is one of nine new women Fellows elected this year and one of just 52 women Fellows in the society.

Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are among previous Fellows of the Royal Society, which remains one of the world's most respected scientific academies.

"I'm delighted by this honour," said Professor Bell-Burnell.

"Being Dean of Science at the University of Bath, which has so many strong science departments, has doubtless been a factor in my election.

Academic career

"I look forward to playing a part in the Royal Society, the country's senior scientific society," she added.

"It has been part of my mission to encourage more women into science and to be a role model for women in science. I hope my election to the Royal Society will help women to see what they can achieve at the highest levels in science."

Professor Bell-Burnell has been dean of the faculty of science at the university since 2001.

She spent the previous 10 years as professor of physics at the Open University and had a year as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Princeton in the United States.

She started her academic career by failing the Northern Ireland equivalent of the 11-plus.

After gaining a creditable number of O and A Levels, she went on to read for a degree in physics at the University of Glasgow, followed by a PhD in radio astronomy at Cambridge.

During her time at Cambridge she played a key role in the discovery in 1968 of pulsars - a type of spinning and pulsating star that emits radio waves.

This opened up a new branch of astrophysics work that was recognised by the award of a Nobel prize to her supervisor.