Martin Rees
Sir Martin John Rees (born
June 23,
1942) has been
Astronomer Royal since
1995 and Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge since
2004. Educated at
Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied in the US before taking a professorship at
Sussex University. Returning to
Cambridge, he held the post of
Plumian Professor until
1991 and was director of the Institute of Astronomy there.
Rees won the
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in
1987. He was knighted in
1992 and won the
Bruce Medal in
1993. He was awarded the
Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the
American Astronomical Society in
2004.
In a career that has seen him publish over 500 research papers, he has made important contributions in the origin of the
cosmic microwave background, as well as
galaxy clustering and formation. His studies of the distribution of
quasars proved a strong argument against the
steady state theory, and he was one of the first to propose that enormous
black holes power the quasars. He is also a well-respected and popular publicist of
astronomy and
science in general.
Publications
\n* "Cosmic Coincidences", 1989.\n* "New perspectives in astrophysical cosmology", 1995.\n* "Gravity's fatal attraction: black holes in the universe", 1995.\n* "Before the beginning - our universe and others", 1997.\n* "Just Six Numbers", 2000.\n* "Our Cosmic Habitat", 2001.\n* "Our Final Hour" (UK title: "Our Final Century"), 2003, ISBN 0465068626.
Quote
- "Once the threshold is crossed when there is a self-sustaining level of life in space, then life's long-range future will be secure irrespective of any of the risks on Earth (with the single exception of the catastrophic destruction of space itself). Will this happen before our technical civilisation disintegrates, leaving this as a might-have-been? Will the self-sustaining space communities be established before a catastrophe sets back the prospect of any such enterprise, perhaps foreclosing it for ever? We live at what could be a defining moment for the cosmos, not just for our Earth." ~ Our Final Hour by Martin Rees
External link
\n* Martin Rees home page
Rees, Martin
