The English astronomer Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell (born 1913) pioneered in radio astronomy and founded the Jodrell Bank Laboratory.

Bernard Lovell was born Aug. 31, 1913, in the village of Oldland Common (Gloucestershire), Great Britain. At the age of 20, he received his bachelor's degree in physics from Bristol University; three years later, in 1936, he received his doctorate, also in physics. He was appointed assistant lecturer in physics at the University of Manchester. In 1937 he married Mary Joyce Chesterman, a teacher, who collaborated with her husband in writing popular books on astronomy. They had two sons and three daughters.

At the outbreak of World War II Lovell joined the Air Ministry Research Establishment and soon became head of the blind-bombing and antisubmarine groups; in this capacity, he helped develop the use of airborne radar systems in Great Britain. At the end of the war, in 1945, Lovell returned to the University of...