High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, FRS, FRAS (born 15 July 1943), is a Britishastrophysicist. As a postgraduate student she discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish. She was president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010, and was interim president following the death of her successor, Marshall Stoneham, in early 2011. She was succeeded in October 2011 by Sir Peter Knight.