Martin Rees

The Lord Rees of Ludlow
At Jodrell Bank in 2007
Born	(1942-06-23) 23 June 1942 York, England
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Known for	Cosmic microwave background radiation, quasars Astronomer Royal
Awards	Michael Faraday Prize (2004), Crafoord Prize (2005)
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomer
Institutions	Trinity College, Cambridge Sussex University
Doctoral advisor	Denis Sciama
Doctoral students	Roger Blandford Jonathan McDowell

Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, OM, PRS (born 23 June 1942 in York) is an English cosmologist and astrophysicist. He has been Astronomer Royal since 1995, and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge since 2004. He became President of the Royal Society on 1 December 2005.

Career

Rees was educated at Shrewsbury School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and completed his doctorate under Dennis Sciama at Cambridge. After holding post-doctoral research positions in England and the United States, he taught at Sussex University and the University of Cambridge, where he was the Plumian Professor until 1991, and the director of the Institute of Astronomy. From 1992 to 2003, he was Royal Society Research Professor, and from 2003 Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics. He was Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London, in 1975 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979. He also holds Visiting Professorships at Imperial College London and at the University of Leicester. In 2008 he received an honorary doctorate from Yale University. He is also a Member of Council of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

The author of more than 500 research papers, Rees has made important contributions to the origin of cosmic microwave background radiation, as well as to galaxy clustering and formation. His studies of the distribution of quasars proved to be a nail in the coffin of the steady state theory. He was also one of the first to propose that enormous black holes power quasars. He is also a well-respected author of books on astronomy and science intended for the lay public.

On 22 July 2005, he was elevated to a life peerage, sitting as a crossbencher in the House of Lords. On 6 September, he was created Baron Rees of Ludlow, of Ludlow in the County of Shropshire.

Honours

Awards

• Heineman Prize (1984)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1987)
• Knighted (1992)
• Bruce Medal (1993)
• Bruno Rossi Prize (2000)
• Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2001)
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society (2004)
• Lifeboat Foundation's Guardian Award (2004)
• Royal Society's Michael Faraday Prize for science communication (2004)
• Life Peerage (2005)
• Crafoord Prize, with James Gunn and James Peebles (2005)
• Order of Merit-the personal gift of The Queen (2007)
• Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum (2007)

Named after him

• Asteroid 4587 Rees

Publications

• Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology (coauthor John Gribbin), 1989, Bantam, ISBN 0-553-34740-3
• New Perspectives in Astrophysical Cosmology, 1995, ISBN 0-521-64544-1
• Gravity's Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe, 1995, ISBN 0-7167-6029-0
• Before the Beginning - Our Universe and Others, 1997, ISBN 0-7382-0033-6
• Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe, 2000, ISBN 0-465-03673-2
• Our Cosmic Habitat, 2001, ISBN 0-691-11477-3
• Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century--On Earth and Beyond (UK title: Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century?), 2003, ISBN 0-465-06862-6

Quotes

"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

"Let me say that I don’t see any conflict between science and religion. I go to church as many other scientists do. I share with most religious people a sense of mystery and wonder at the universe and I want to participate in religious ritual and practices because they’re something that all humans can share.”

See also

• Rees's Six Fundamental Numbers
• Gresham Professor of Astronomy

External links

• Martin Rees' home page
• Master of Trinity College, Cambridge page
• Royal Society
• Spaceflight or Extinction: Martin Rees Excerpts from Our Final Hour
• Martin Rees - "Einstein's legacy as scientist and icon" talk at the Royal Society
• "A concerned member of the human race" talk at the TED Conference
• Podcast of Lecture "The World in 2050" given at the James Martin 21st Century School, University of Oxford, February 2009
• News stories about Martin Rees from BBC News Online:
  • Martin Rees: Alien life could be out there (31 May 2002)
  • Sir Martin Rees: Prophet of doom? (25 April 2003)
  • Martin Rees tipped to head Royal Society (29 March 2005)
  • A future full of hopes and fears (16 July 2005)
• Martin Rees nomination for new President of the Royal Society (29 March 2005)
• Appointment as life peer (House of Lords Appointments Commission, 22 July 2005)
• University of Cambridge press releases:
  • Professor Sir Martin Rees wins Crafoord Prize (10 February 2005)
  • Sir Martin Rees appointed to Lords (1 August 2005)
• Journalism and other writing:
  • Dark Materials: The legacy of Joseph Rotblat (10 June 2006)
  • Science: The Coming Century from The New York Review of Books
• Interview
  • Transcript of an interview with Joan Bakewell, in her "Belief" series, on BBC Radio 3, 2006-04-13.
  • Interview on PBS with Charlie Rose
  • Martin Rees interviewed by Alan Macfarlane, 22nd August 2007 (film)

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