Martin Rees

Master of Trinity College, Cambridge

21st Century Science: Cosmic Perspectives and Terrestrial Challenges

In his series of lectures, Rees presents an overview of the current scientific understanding of reality and the unique set of challenges facing the next generation of scientists and broader global community. An astrophysicist, he brings a cosmic perspective, asking his audience to learn from ‘deep time’. Concluding that the advances of science in the last century have greatly impacted our understanding of reality and our place in it, they have also provided incredible promise and incredible peril.

Biography

Martin John Rees was born on 23 June 1942 in York, England. The UK’s Astronomer Royal, he cofounded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. Appointed Professor at Sussex in 1972, he moved to Gresham College in 1975. He then became Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge and served for ten years as Director of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. From 1992 to 2003, he was a Royal Society Research Professor, returning to Cambridge as Master of Trinity College in 2004.

Appointed to the House of Lords in 2005, he was also the President of the Royal Society. Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Einstein Award of the World Cultural Council, and the Templeton Prize, and sits on the board of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Notable works include On the Future (1999), Just Six Numbers (1999), New Perspectives in Astrophysical Cosmology (2000), Our Final Hour (2003), From Here to Infinity (2011), and If Science to Save Us (2022).

Published/Archival Resources

These lectures have not been published and no archival information is available..