The Companion of Honour is one of the UK’s most prestigious accolades, limited to only 65 living members and celebrating outstanding achievements in public life.

Professor Bell Burnell was responsible for the discovery of pulsars while a radio astronomy graduate student in Cambridge and has subsequently worked in gamma ray, X-ray, infrared and millimetre wavelength astronomy. She has been a leading advocate for inclusivity in science throughout her career.

"Mansfield College Oxford is proud that our Fellow Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell has received this great honour, in recognition of her huge contributions to astrophysics and in promoting diverse people and ideas in science."

Helen Mountfield KC

A Mansfield trio in the Order of the Companions of Honour

This honour also puts Jocelyn alongside others with close ties to Mansfield.

The other recipient of the CH in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours is Sir Antony Gormley, creator of Present Time – the cast iron sculpture in our quad.

And another current Companion of Honour is Lord Patten of Barnes, former Chancellor of the University of Oxford and previous Visitor of Mansfield College, who received the award in the 1998 New Year Honours.

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