Martin John Rees

Martin Rees, a leading astrophysicist, has conducted influential theoretical work on subjects as diverse as black hole formation and  extragalactic radio sources, and provided key evidence to contradict the Steady State theory of the evolution of the Universe. He was also one of the first to predict the uneven distribution of matter in the Universe, and proposed observational tests to determine the clustering of stars and galaxies. He served as president of the Royal Society from 2005 to 2010 and as master of Trinity College, Cambridge from 2004 to 2012. Among his  many honors are the Heinemann Prize (1984), Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society (2004), Life Peerage (2005), the Order of Merit (2007), and the Isaac Newton Medal (2012).