Anthony Raymond Bell FRS^[2] (born 9 June 1952) is a British physicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Oxford^[3] and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.^[4] He is a senior research fellow at Somerville College, Oxford.^[5]

Anthony Raymond Bell was born on 9 June 1952 in Lincoln, England, to Raymond and Muriel Bell.^[6] He was educated at Leeds Modern School and Churchill College, Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences and later gained a PhD in radio astronomy in 1977 for research investigating supernova remnants.^[6][7]

Following his PhD, Bell worked on radar signal processing with Marconi Electronic Systems before moving to the Central Laser Facility as a laser-plasma theorist.^[2] In 1985 he was appointed a lecturer at Imperial College London. In 2007, following two years with the Methodist Church, he was jointly appointed at the Clarendon Laboratory and the Central Laser Facility.^[2]

Bell's research investigates plasma physics.^[2][8][9] He wrote one of four independent papers proposing the theory of cosmic ray acceleration by shocks.^{[10][11][12][13]} He showed how strong magnetic field is generated during particle acceleration and how it enables cosmic ray acceleration to high energy.^[2] He initiated the theory of non-local transport for heat flow in inertial confinement fusion, explained the collimation of laser-produced energetic electrons by resistively generated magnetic field, and with John G. Kirk demonstrated the possibility of electron-positron pair production in ultra-high intensity laser-plasma interactions.^[2]

Bell married Irene Barnett in 1975; they have two sons and one daughter. He is a local preacher in the Methodist Church of Great Britain and plays the piano.^[6]