Martin Rees has spent most of his working life as a university professor, his research interests being in astronomy and space science. He has lectured, written and broadcast extensively on these subjects, and has written several books for a general readership, including ‘Before the Beginning’, ‘Just Six Numbers’, ‘Our Cosmic Habitat’, and most recently ‘From Here to Infinity’, an expanded version of his 2010 BBC Reith Lectures.

He is currently Master of Trinity College at Cambridge University. He is also Astronomer Royal, and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester University.

Outside his academic work, he has been a Trustee of the British Museum, the Science Museum, the IPPR and the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies. He has served on many bodies connected with space exploration, international science and global problems such as energy, food supplies, and climate change. In 2005 he was appointed to the House of Lords, and he was President of the Royal Society for the period 2005-10.