United Kingdom
Martin Rees
said
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
British cosmologist and astrophysicist (1942-)
- Fame55.2
- Momentum0.0
- United Kingdom rank#124
Source-basedStable
- Fame55.2
- Momentum0.0
- United Kingdom rank#124
- Scientists rank#232
- Wikipedia4.7K
Born 1942 · age 84United Kingdom
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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
said
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)
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Photos
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By the numbers
Score breakdown
The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.
Fame
Stable55.2
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical24.0
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Receipts
Sources
- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
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