British cosmologist and astrophysicist
Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow ,
OM ,
FRS ,
HonFREng ,
FMedSci ,
FRAS ,
HonFInstP
[10]
[2] (born 23 June 1942) is a British
cosmologist and
astrophysicist .
[11] He is the fifteenth
Astronomer Royal , appointed in 1995,
[12]
[13] and was
Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge , from 2004 to 2012 and
President of the Royal Society between 2005 and 2010.
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
Education and early life
Rees was born on 23 June 1942 in
York , England.
[1]
[20] After a peripatetic life during the war his parents, both teachers, settled with Rees, an only child, in a rural part of
Shropshire near the border with Wales. There, his parents founded
Bedstone College , a boarding school based on progressive educational concepts.
[21] He was educated at Bedstone College, then from the age of 13 at
Shrewsbury School . He studied for the
mathematical tripos at
Trinity College, Cambridge ,
[1] graduating with
first class honours . He then undertook post-graduate research at Cambridge and completed a PhD supervised by
Dennis Sciama in 1967.
[3]
[22]
[23] Rees' post-graduate work in astrophysics in the mid-1960s coincided with an explosion of new discoveries, with breakthroughs ranging from confirmation of the
Big Bang , the discovery of
neutron stars and
black holes , and a host of other revelations.
[21]
Career and research
After holding
postdoctoral research positions in the United Kingdom and the United States, he was a professor at
Sussex University , during 1972–1973. He later moved to
Cambridge , where he was the
Plumian Professor at the
University of Cambridge until 1991, and the director of the
Institute of Astronomy .
He was professor of astronomy at
Gresham College , London, in 1975 and became a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979. From 1992 to 2003, he was Royal Society Research Professor, and from 2003 Professor of
Cosmology and
Astrophysics . He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, during 2004–2012. He is an Honorary Fellow of
Darwin College ,
[24]
King's College ,
[25]
Clare Hall ,
[26]
Robinson College and
Jesus College, Cambridge .
[27]
Rees is the author of more than 500 research papers,
[14] and he has made contributions to the origin of
cosmic microwave background radiation , as well as to
galaxy clustering and formation. His studies of the distribution of
quasars led to final disproof of
steady state theory .
[14]
He was one of the first to propose that enormous
black holes power quasars,
[28] and that
superluminal astronomical observations can be explained as an
optical illusion caused by an object moving partly in the direction of the observer.
[29]
Since the 1990s, Rees has worked on
gamma-ray bursts , especially in collaboration with
Péter Mészáros ,
[30] and on how the "cosmic dark ages" ended when the first stars formed. Since the 1970s he has been interested in
anthropic reasoning, and the possibility that our visible universe is part of a vaster "
multiverse ".
[31]
[32]
Rees is an author of books on
astronomy and science intended for the lay public and gives many public lectures and broadcasts. In 2010 he was invited to deliver the
Reith Lectures for the
BBC ,
[33] now published as From Here to Infinity: Scientific Horizons . Rees thinks the
search for extraterrestrial intelligence is worthwhile and has chaired the advisory board for the "
Breakthrough Listen " project, a programme of
SETI investigations funded by the Russian/US investor
Yuri Milner .
[34]
In addition to expansion of his scientific interests, Rees has written and spoken extensively about the problems and challenges of the 21st century, and interfaces between science, ethics, and politics.
[35]
[36]
[37]
[38] He is a member of the Board of the
Institute for Advanced Study , in Princeton and the
Oxford Martin School . He co-founded the
Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
[39] and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the
Future of Life Institute .
[40] He has formerly been a Trustee of the
British Museum , the
Science Museum , the Gates Cambridge Trust and the
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) .
In 2007, he delivered the
Gifford Lectures on 21st Century Science: Cosmic Perspective and Terrestrial Challenges at the
University of St Andrews .
[41]
In August 2014, Rees was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to
The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's
referendum on that issue .
[42]
In 2015, he was co-author of the report that launched the
Global Apollo Programme , which calls for developed nations to commit to spending 0.02% of their GDP for 10 years, to fund coordinated research to make
carbon-free
baseload electricity less costly than
electricity from coal by the year 2025.
[43]
His doctoral students have included
Roger Blandford ,
[3]
[4]
Craig Hogan ,
[5]
[6]
Nick Kaiser
[44]
Priyamvada Natarajan ,
[7] and
James E. Pringle .
To mark the 300th anniversary of the
Board of Longitude in 2014, he instigated a programme of new challenge prizes of £5-10m under the name
'Longitude Prize 2014' , which are administered by Nesta and for which he chairs the advisory board. The themes of the first two prizes are the reduction of inappropriate antibiotic use, and enhancing the safety and independence of dementia sufferers.
The Longitude Prize on Dementia was recently announced in 2022.
In his general writings and in the House of Lords his focus has been on the uses and abuses of advanced technology and on issues such as
assisted dying , preservation of dark skies, and reforms to broaden the post-16 and undergraduate curricula in the UK.
[45] He is also a current member of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.
[46]
Selected bibliography
Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology (co-author
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 , 2nd edition 2009,
ISBN
0-521-71793-0
Before the Beginning – Our Universe and Others , 1997;
ISBN
0-7382-0033-6
Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe , 1999;
ISBN
0-297-84297-8
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
What We Still Don't Know
ISBN
978-0-7139-9821-4 yet to be published.
From Here to Infinity: Scientific Horizons , 2011;
ISBN
978-1-84668-503-3
On the Future : Prospects for Humanity , October 2018, Princeton University Press;
ISBN
978-0-691-18044-1
Rees, Martin (September 2020).
"Our place in the universe" . Scientific American . 323 (3): 56–62. (Online version is titled "How astronomers revolutionized our view of the cosmos".)
The End of Astronauts (co-author Donald Goldsmith), 2022, Harvard University Press
ISBN
9780674257726
If Science is to Save us , 2022, Polity Press
ISBN
9781509554201
Rees, M.,
"Cosmology and High Energy Astrophysics: A 50 year Perspective on Personality, Progress, and Prospects" , Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 60:1–30, 2022.
Honours and awards
He has been president of the
Royal Astronomical Society (1992–94) and the
British Science Association (1995–96), and was a Member of Council of the
Royal Institution of Great Britain until 2010. Rees has received honorary degrees from a number of universities including Hull, Sussex, Uppsala, Toronto, Durham, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Melbourne and Sydney. He belongs to several foreign academies, including the
US National Academy of Sciences , the
Russian Academy of Sciences , the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences , the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ,
[47] the
Science Academy of Turkey
[48] and the
Japan Academy . He became president of the
Royal Society on 1 December 2005
[49]
[50] and continued until the end of the Society's 350th Anniversary Celebrations in 2010. In 2011, he was awarded the
Templeton Prize .
[51] In 2005, Rees was elevated to a
life peerage , sitting as a
crossbencher in the
House of Lords as Baron Rees of Ludlow, of
Ludlow in the County of Shropshire.
[52]
[53] In 2005, he was awarded the Crafoord Prize.
[54] Other awards and honours include:
The
Asteroid
4587 Rees and the Sir Martin Rees Academic Scholarship at
Shrewsbury International School are named in his honour.
In June 2022, to celebrate his 80th birthday, Rees was the subject of the BBC programme
The Sky at Night , in conversation with Professor
Chris Lintott .
[69]
Personal life
Rees married the anthropologist
Caroline Humphrey in 1986.
[1] He is an atheist but has criticized
militant atheists for being too hostile to religion.
[70]
[71]
[72] Rees is a lifelong supporter of the
Labour Party , but has no party affiliation when sitting in the House of Lords.
[73]
[74]
See also
References
^
a
b
c
d
e Anon (2017)
"REES OF LUDLOW" .
Who's Who (online
Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. (Subscription or
UK public library membership required.)
doi :
10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.32152 (subscription required)
^
a
b
c
d
"List of Fellows" . raeng.org.uk . Archived from
the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2014 .
^
a
b
c
d
Martin Rees at the
Mathematics Genealogy Project
^
a
b Blandford, Roger David (1973).
Electrodynamics and astrophysical applications of strong waves . lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
OCLC
500386171 .
EThOS
uk.bl.ethos.450028 .
^
a
b Hogan, Craig James (1980). Pre galactic history (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
EThOS
uk.bl.ethos.258089 .
^
a
b Hogan, Craig James.
"Curriculum vitae" (PDF) . Retrieved 19 February 2018 .
^
a
b
"CURRICULUM VITAE: Priyamvada Natarajan" . Yale CampusPress .
Yale University . Retrieved 27 August 2020 .
^
"Martin Rees – the Mathematics Genealogy Project" .
^
"Curriculum Vitae – Nicholas Kaiser" (PDF) . ifa.hawaii.edu . Archived from
the original (PDF) on 17 February 2005. Retrieved 13 September 2019 .
^ Anon (2015).
"The Lord Rees of Ludlow OM Kt HonFREng FRS" . royalsociety .
Royal Society . Archived from
the original on 17 November 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ." --
"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies" . Archived from
the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2016 .
^ Rees, Martin J. (18 August 2022).
"Cosmology and High-Energy Astrophysics: A 50-Year Perspective on Personalities, Progress, and Prospects" . Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics . 60 (1): 1–30.
Bibcode :
2022ARA&A..60....1R .
doi :
10.1146/annurev-astro-111021-084639 .
ISSN
0066-4146 .
S2CID
248066390 . Retrieved 19 August 2022 .
^
"Portraits of Astronomers Royal" . rmg.co.uk . Royal Museums Greenwich. Archived from
the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2015 .
^
"Astronomer Royal" .
The British Monarchy .
Royal Household . Archived from
the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2017 .
^
a
b
c
Martin Rees publications indexed by the
Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
^
Martin J. Rees at
Library of Congress , with 23 library catalogue records
^
"2005 talk: Is this our final century?" . ted.com . accessed 31 August 2014
^
"Interviews with Charlie Rose, 2003 and 2008" . charlierose.com . Archived from
the original on 28 January 2010. accessed 31 August 2014
^ Anon (2010).
"New Statesman Interviews Martin Rees" . newstatesman.com .
New Statesman . accessed 31 August 2014
^
Talk by Martin Rees, March 2017 on
YouTube
^ GRO Register of Births: SEP 1942 9c 1465 YORK – Martin J. Rees, mmn=Bett
^
a
b
"Templeton Prize Winners – Discover Laureates From 1973 to Today" . Templeton Prize .
^ Rees, Martin (1967).
Physical Processes in Radio Sources and the Intergalactic Medium . copac.jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from
the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2017 .
^
"Inventory: Martin Rees" .
Financial Times . 2014.
Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2014 .(subscription required)
^
"Master & fellows" . Darwin College Cambridge. Retrieved 19 February 2018 .
^
"Honorary Fellows" . www.kings.cam.ac.uk . Retrieved 15 March 2018 .
^
"Honorary Fellow | Clare Hall" . www.clarehall.cam.ac.uk . Retrieved 15 March 2018 .
^
"Honorary and St Radegund Fellows" . Jesus College Cambridge. Retrieved 19 February 2018 .
^ Rees, M.J. (1984). "Black Hole Models for Active Galactic Nuclei". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics . 22 : 471–506.
Bibcode :
1984ARA&A..22..471R .
doi :
10.1146/annurev.aa.22.090184.002351 .
^ Rees, M.J. (1966). "Appearance of Relativistically Expanding Radio Sources". Nature . 211 (5048): 468–70.
Bibcode :
1966Natur.211..468R .
doi :
10.1038/211468a0 .
S2CID
41065207 .
^ Meszaros, P.; Rees, M. J. (1992). "Tidal heating and mass loss in neutron star binaries – Implications for gamma-ray burst models".
Astrophysical Journal . 397 (10): 570.
Bibcode :
1992ApJ...397..570M .
doi :
10.1086/171813 .
^ Carr, B. J.; Rees, M. J. (1979). "The anthropic principle and the structure of the physical world". Nature . 278 (5705): 605–612.
Bibcode :
1979Natur.278..605C .
doi :
10.1038/278605a0 .
S2CID
4363262 .
^ Martin J. Rees (1997). Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others . Perseus Books.
ISBN
978-0-7382-0033-0 .
^
"BBC Radio 4 – The Reith Lectures, Martin Rees – Scientific Horizons, The Scientific Citizen" . BBC . Retrieved 16 March 2023 .
^
Interview with Paul Broks
Archived 23 February 2012 at the
Wayback Machine , Prospectmagazine.co.uk; accessed 31 August 2014.
^
"Martin Rees Biography and Interview" . www.achievement.org .
American Academy of Achievement .
^ Rees, Martin (9 June 2006).
"Dark materials" . The Guardian .
ISSN
0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 March 2023 .
^
Podcast of Lecture "The World in 2050" , given at the
James Martin 21st Century School , 21school.ox.ac.uk, February 2009.
^ Rees, Martin (23 May 2015).
"Astronomer Royal Martin Rees: How soon will robots take over the world?" . The Telegraph .
ISSN
0307-1235 . Retrieved 23 June 2019 .
^ Lewsey, Fred (25 November 2012).
"Humanity's last invention and our uncertain future" . Research News . University of Cambridge. Retrieved 28 January 2013 .
^
Who We Are , Future of Life Institute, 2014, archived from
the original on 7 May 2014, retrieved 7 May 2014
^
"The St Andrews Gifford Lectures" . st-andrews.ac.uk . University of St Andrews.
^
"Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories" . The Guardian . London. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014 .
^ Carrington, Damian.
"Global Apollo programme seeks to make clean energy cheaper than coal" . The Guardian . No. 2 June 2015.
Guardian News Media . Retrieved 2 June 2015 .
^
"Nick Kaiser | Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics" . higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk . 7 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2018 .
^
https://members.parliament.uk/member/3751/contributions
^
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/193/science-and-technology-committee-lords/membership/
^
"M.J. Rees" . Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from
the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016 .
^
"Foreign Honorary Members" . Bilim Akademisi . Archived from
the original on 6 January 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2014 .
^
"Rees tipped to head science body" . BBC News . 29 March 2005. Retrieved 16 March 2023 .
^
Martin Rees nominated for presidency of the Royal Society
Archived 1 October 2007 at the
Wayback Machine , royalsoc.ac.uk, 29 March 2005; accessed 31 August 2014.
^ Sample, Ian; correspondent, science (6 April 2011).
"Martin Rees wins controversial £1m Templeton prize" . The Guardian .
ISSN
0261-3077 . Retrieved 16 March 2023 .
^
"State: Crown Office" .
The London Gazette . No. 57753. 9 September 2005. p. 11653. Retrieved 5 January 2020 .
^
Sir Martin Rees appointed to the House of Lords
Archived 6 June 2011 at the
Wayback Machine , admin.cam.ac.uk, 1 August 2005; accessed 31 August 2014.
^
Professor Sir Martin Rees wins Crafoord Prize
Archived 29 March 2005 at the
Wayback Machine , admin.cam.ac.uk, 10 February 2005; accessed 31 August 2014.
^
"Martin John Rees" . American Academy of Arts & Sciences . 7 August 2023.
^
"Martin J. Rees" . www.nasonline.org .
^
"No. 52935" .
The London Gazette . 29 May 1992. p. 9177.
^
"APS Member History" .
^
"Honorary doctorates – Uppsala University, Sweden" . www.uu.se . 9 June 2023.
^
"Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" . www.achievement.org .
American Academy of Achievement .
^
"Albert Einstein World Award of Science 2003" . Archived from
the original on 7 June 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2013 .
^
"No. 57753" .
The London Gazette . 9 September 2005. p. 11653.
^
"No. 58379" .
The London Gazette . 29 June 2007. p. 9395.
^ Cressey, Daniel (2011). "Martin Rees takes Templeton Prize". Nature .
doi :
10.1038/news.2011.208 .
^
"ICTP - The Medallists" . www.ictp.it .
^
"European Astronomical Society 2020 prizes" (PDF) . European Astronomical Society . 6 March 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020 .
^
"AAS Fellows" . AAS. Retrieved 30 September 2020 .
^
Copley Medal 2023
^
"BBC Four – The Sky at Night, The Astronomer Royal at 80" . BBC .
^
"Templeton Report: Martin J. Rees Wins 2011 Templeton Prize" . Archived from
the original on 3 March 2016.
^ Sample, Ian (6 April 2011).
"Martin Rees: I've got no religious beliefs at all – interview" .
TheGuardian.com .
^
"Can humanity survive the future?" . Financial Times . October 2018.
Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2020 . Rees, while stating he is an atheist, declares that he shares a sense of "mystery" with those who believe in God.
^
"Martin Rees: 'We shouldn't attach any weight to what Hawking says" . The Independent . 27 September 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2020 .
^ Radford, Tim (2 December 2005).
"Guardian profile: Martin Rees" . The Guardian . Retrieved 20 February 2020 .
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