Martin Rees

Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge

Martin Rees is Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics and Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and also Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester University. After studying at the University of Cambridge, he held post-doctoral positions in the UK and the USA, before becoming a professor at Sussex University. In 1973, he became a fellow of King's College and Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge (continuing in the latter post until 1991) and served for ten years as director of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. He was the recipient of the 2004 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award, annually bestowed upon a public figure who has encouraged provisions against existential risks. He authored Our Final Hour, a book on potential sources of existential risks in the 21st century.

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TED Talk on Our Final Hour