Martin Rees

British cosmologist and astrophysicist (1942-)

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Born 1942 · age 84United Kingdom

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Wikipedia
36 languages
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Age
84
Born 1942
Awards
40
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-10

He spent decades modeling how galaxies form and what happens when matter falls into black holes — work that earned him the Wolf Prize and a perch as Britain's Astronomer Royal for thirty years.

Biography

About

Born 23 June 1942, Martin John Rees built a career tracing the violent physics of the early universe: high-energy astrophysics, the assembly of galaxies, the large-scale structure that shapes everything. The work was rigorous enough to land him the title of Astronomer Royal in 1995, a post he held until 2025. He led Trinity College, Cambridge, from 2004 to 2012 and served as President of the Royal Society from 2005 to 2010. In 2024 he received the Wolf Prize in Physics for his fundamental contributions across cosmology and structure formation. He became Baron Rees of Ludlow along the way, a re…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Martin Rees

Martin Rees

said1997

When I discover I'm wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?

— overheard in a colloquium at Princeton University, ca. 1997

Martin Rees

said1971

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

— As quoted in Project Cyclops: A Design Study of a System for Detecting Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life (1971) by Bernard M. Oliver, and

Martin Rees

saidundated

We’re all depressingly ‘lay’ outside our specialisms — my own knowledge, of recent biological advances, such as it is, comes largely from ‘popular’ books and journalism.

— as quoted by Jessica Bland in

Martin Rees

saidundated

No one can say which approach is the right one — so no one can say how close we are to a solution.

— On developing a unification of quantum theory, relativity and classical physics, "Conversation with Martin Rees" at the Templeton

Martin Rees

saidundated

... I'd want to emphasize that most progress in cosmology and astrophysics has been due to advanced instruments and technology — less than 5 per cent to armchair theory.

— (quote at 1:04:15 of 1:45:45)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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