Courtesy University of Cambridge

Martin Rees is Astronomer Royal and a Fellow (and former Master) of Trinity College, Cambridge. After studying at Cambridge, he held post-doctoral positions in the UK and the USA, before becoming a professor at Sussex University, and subsequently moving to Cambridge as professor and (for ten years) Director of the Institute of Astronomy. He has received numerous international awards including the Balzan Prize, the Bower Prize of the Franklin Institute, the Gruber Prize, the Crafoord Prize and the Templeton Prize. He is a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy, and several other foreign academies. He served during 2005-2010 as President of the Royal Society and in 2005 he was appointed to the UK's House of Lords. As well as
having written hundreds of research papers and general articles, he is the author of nine books, including Before the Beginning, Just Six Numbers, Our Cosmic Habitat, Our Final Hour and, most recently From Here to Infinity (W.W. Norton).