Nicole Bell
A love of maths led theoretical physicist Nicole Bell to a career searching for the nature of dark matter.
As a school student, theoretical physicist Professor Nicole Bell never expected her interest in maths to lead her explore the big questions of the universe.
But that is where Professor Bell finds herself as she explores the nature of dark matter – one of science’s great questions – with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics.
Professor Bell said the opportunity to work with talented researchers to tackle science’s greatest mysteries was just one of the advantages of her career pathway.
“One of the things about my job is that I get to indulge my interest in maths, but also to study the big, fundamental questions about the universe,” she said.
Throughout her career to date, she has worked alongside some of science’s brightest minds, both at the University of Melbourne, where she was awarded her PhD in 2001, and internationally. She spent several years working in the US earlier in her career, first at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago and then at the illustrious Caltech in Pasadena, California.
Professor Bell is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, as well as the Australian Institute of Physics. Among many honours, she was awarded the 2020 Nancy Millis Medal by the Australian Academy of Science. In 2021, she began an appointment as Vice President of the Australian Institute of Physics.
Her research lies at the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, with particular interests in dark matter, neutrinos and matter-antimatter asymmetries. At the Dark Matter Centre, she leads the Theory Program.
During International Day of Women and Girls in STEM, Professor Bell said that working in a male dominated industry was not without its challenges.
While the hours are flexible, the workload can be heavy, especially when combined with the demands of raising three children.
“I have been very fortunate in my career, but as I progress I am more acutely aware of unconscious bias at play.”
“Unfortunately, the gender imbalance in Physics is systemic and begins early, with women making up only 25% of high school physics enrolments. So it is a difficult problem to solve, no matter how much we encourage girls to get involved.”
She would like girls considering physics as a career to know that her pathway has been an exciting and fulfilling one so far – and one that holds new discoveries in the future.
“It is an extraordinary field to work in. It wasn’t obvious to me as a school student that algebra could lead to contemplating the nature of the universe,” she said.