"In 1974, Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s male PhD supervisor at the University of Cambridge won a Nobel Prize for a discovery that she was the first to notice. On Thursday, the 75-year-old acclaimed astrophysicist won a coveted science prize of her own---the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. […]

The award honors Bell Burnell for her discovery of pulsars---neutron stars that emit electromagnetic radiation from their poles.These rapidly spinning radiation beams sweep past the Earth at regular intervals. … Bell Burnell first noticed pulsars during a routine data collection in 1967, with the help of a radio telescope she was in charge of monitoring at Cambridge. Her supervisor, Antony Hewish, ended up winning a Nobel Prize for the discovery.

Back then, society functioned under the belief that scientific advancements were driven by men, Bell Burnell told the The Washington Post. Women, on the other hand, were expected to study cookery and needlework. “It was such a firm assumption that it wasn’t even discussed, so there was no choice in the matter,” the scientist said.

Bell Burnell went on to become one of the U.K.’s leading astronomers and a role model for female scientists. Her discovery of pulsars opened up a brand new branch of astrophysics."


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scientist-whose-male-boss-won-nobel-for-her-work-is-giving-new-3-million-prize-away_us_5b92bf90e4b0511db3e20987

But, but, but...she's a mere female who is to submit to her husband as he submits to the lord in righteousness! So saith the prophet! She needs to make chocolate chip cookies for her children and doughnuts for her husband to eat after he hears the Word of the Lord in General Conference!!! I know, I know! She was misled by the temptations of the world in these last days!

Not to downplay the sexism, but it was not uncommon for faculty advisors to take credit for discoveries from the students of either gender whose research they supervised. That happens less now, but I doubt it has disappeared.

When I was teaching, we had a sophomore engineering student who got a summer internship at NASA. The work she did was patented, and they put the patent in her name rather than the name of her supervisor. I was surprised and even more impressed with NASA, which I already had a pretty high opinion of.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2018 11:37AM by Brother Of Jerry.

This isn't sexism but academic elitism that allows senior faculty members to claim research done by their juniors. Now that women are more vocal about their treatment, they can raise the point. Notice that a woman can claim "sexism," but a male graduate student would be expected to accept this treatment as part of the "system."

When I worked at a university we had a professor visiting to give lectures on his research. A junior faculty member challenged the professor's role in the research because he had employed other researchers.

But this is how "research" gets done. The work is done by graduate students or researchers on fellowships. But the research would never have been started without the primary researcher applying for grants from the government or corporations willing to fund him. He can then assemble a laboratory and hire people to do the research. His role is primarily as a "manager."

But a team of graduate students wouldn't have gotten anywhere near any of those funds. Even this junior faculty member may have only qualified for funding to research things for himself, but not enough to hire anyone as a research team.

Sorry, but that is how "research" gets done.