Bell Burnell Graduate scholarship for University of Liverpool student
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Lewis Maxwell has been awarded a prestigious Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship from the Institute of Physics.
The Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund was set up by leading physicist Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the Institute of Physics (IOP) in 2019 when she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her role in the discovery of pulsars.
She immediately donated her £2.3m prize award to the IOP. Her aim was to help counter what she described as “the unconscious bias that still exists in physics research”, adding: “I don’t need the money myself, and it seemed to me that this was perhaps the best use I could put it to.”
The Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship fund aims to improve diversity in physics by offering doctoral scholarships to students from groups currently underrepresented in the physics research community.
Lewis’s PhD is an inclusion-focused doctoral project shaped by lived experience as a disabled, LGBTQ+ student and builds on previous MPhys research.
Lewis's research will combine advanced statistical modelling with qualitative methods to investigate how disability, gender identity, and other socio-demographic factors influence degree outcomes in physics. The findings will directly contribute to the development of inclusive teaching tools tailored to the needs of underrepresented groups.
Lewis will be supervised by Dr Chris Edmonds, an award-winning physicist known for his public engagement work, including the Tactile Collider Project—an innovative initiative that brought particle physics to blind and visually impaired audiences using touch and sound.
On receiving the award, Lewis said: “I’m really thrilled to receive this scholarship and to lead a minority-focused project that centres on the lived experiences of those most impacted by barriers in physics education.
“This research project is vital for developing a diverse and thriving community of physicists that encourages collaboration and innovation.
“I’m particularly passionate about improving the quality of education and support for disabled students in physics, and I’m excited by the potential for this project to make a real difference for future students.”
You can read more about Lewis's research here.