Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 10 minutes ago
In 2018 Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell donated her £2.3m Breakthrough Prize to support physicists from under-represented groups. The Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund has so far enabled 21 students to pursue physics PhDs they couldn't otherwise have taken on. In this film, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and some of the awardees talk about the impact the fund is making.
Transcript:
I wouldn't have ever done it
if I wasn't to get this sort of funding.
I knew, like, straight away
that I was going to apply,
but never in a million years did
I think I was going to get it, so…
It struck me that if we could
get more underrepresented
groups doing PhDs in physics,
it would make it easier
for all sorts of people from
diverse groups to be physicists.
Actually going through the application process
and winning the scholarship, it finally
kind of settled I was like
‘wait, hold on. I'm a PhD student.
I'm going to do a PhD, I'm a physics student?’
Holy crap.
It's given me that sort of extra boost
of confidence to believe in myself.
I'm doing a PhD now, and I can
actually afford to do a PhD now.
It's made a huge difference.
I feel like I have a community
of people that are like me.
It's really made the difference between being
able to do the PhD and not doing it at all.
No one's going to judge you.
You know, I came in as a mature student,
and then also I had a baby,
and you kind of feel like,
oh God, I'm the only person doing this,
but you're not,
so no one is going to judge you.
Now I have money to do a project,
and I can really get into it.
I come from a place where we don't have
very much money, and
I didn't have to worry about that anymore.
I could worry about the physics
and doing something that I really enjoy
and something that I really love.
I'm here now and I'm doing
my PhD at Edinburgh,
and I'm having a really good time.
I think if you are going to get funding
it might as well be something really cool
like this, right?
I love physics, and that's why I'm
applying for this fund.
But I also want to just make a slight
difference to the people around me
and to show other girls
that if I can do it,
then they can do it too, and we can be
a small change in the world.
It's great to see the fund up and running
and still enlarging, getting bigger.
In 2018 Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell donated her £2.3m Breakthrough Prize to support physicists from under-represented groups. The Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund has so far enabled 21 students to pursue physics PhDs they couldn't otherwise have taken on. In this film, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and some of the awardees talk about the impact the fund is making.
Transcript:
I wouldn't have ever done it
if I wasn't to get this sort of funding.
I knew, like, straight away
that I was going to apply,
but never in a million years did
I think I was going to get it, so…
It struck me that if we could
get more underrepresented
groups doing PhDs in physics,
it would make it easier
for all sorts of people from
diverse groups to be physicists.
Actually going through the application process
and winning the scholarship, it finally
kind of settled I was like
‘wait, hold on. I'm a PhD student.
I'm going to do a PhD, I'm a physics student?’
Holy crap.
It's given me that sort of extra boost
of confidence to believe in myself.
I'm doing a PhD now, and I can
actually afford to do a PhD now.
It's made a huge difference.
I feel like I have a community
of people that are like me.
It's really made the difference between being
able to do the PhD and not doing it at all.
No one's going to judge you.
You know, I came in as a mature student,
and then also I had a baby,
and you kind of feel like,
oh God, I'm the only person doing this,
but you're not,
so no one is going to judge you.
Now I have money to do a project,
and I can really get into it.
I come from a place where we don't have
very much money, and
I didn't have to worry about that anymore.
I could worry about the physics
and doing something that I really enjoy
and something that I really love.
I'm here now and I'm doing
my PhD at Edinburgh,
and I'm having a really good time.
I think if you are going to get funding
it might as well be something really cool
like this, right?
I love physics, and that's why I'm
applying for this fund.
But I also want to just make a slight
difference to the people around me
and to show other girls
that if I can do it,
then they can do it too, and we can be
a small change in the world.
It's great to see the fund up and running
and still enlarging, getting bigger.
