Lord Martin Rees - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/lord-martin-rees/","20180622225332","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1529708012"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Lord Martin Rees - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="One of the world's leading cosmologists, Lord Rees is renowned for his pioneering work on galaxy formation, quasars, black holes and the origin of the universe. His early study of the distribution of quasars helped to discredit the formerly accepted “steady-state” theory of the evolution of the universe. His work has provided precious insight into the infancy of the universe, the so-called “dark ages” immediately following the Big Bang. In addition to his theoretical work, he is acclaimed for his ability to present complex scientific concepts to a nonprofessional audience. Besides his more than 500 scientific papers and academic works, he has published over half a dozen books for the general public, including Gravity’s Fatal Attraction and Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others. A senior figure in the British scientific community, he is the former master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a past president of the Royal Society, and now holds the title of Astronomer Royal. Knighted for his services to science in 1992, he was appointed to the House of Lords in 2005 as Baron Rees of Ludlow."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Lord Martin Rees - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="One of the world's leading cosmologists, Lord Rees is renowned for his pioneering work on galaxy formation, quasars, black holes and the origin of the universe. His early study of the distribution of quasars helped to discredit the formerly accepted “steady-state” theory of the evolution of the universe. His work has provided precious insight into the infancy of the universe, the so-called “dark ages” immediately following the Big Bang. In addition to his theoretical work, he is acclaimed for his ability to present complex scientific concepts to a nonprofessional audience. Besides his more than 500 scientific papers and academic works, he has published over half a dozen books for the general public, including <em>Gravity’s Fatal Attraction </em>and <em>Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others. </em> A senior figure in the British scientific community, he is the former master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a past president of the Royal Society, and now holds the title of Astronomer Royal. Knighted for his services to science in 1992, he was appointed to the House of Lords in 2005 as Baron Rees of Ludlow."/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/REES-AP-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="One of the world's leading cosmologists, Lord Rees is renowned for his pioneering work on galaxy formation, quasars, black holes and the origin of the universe. His early study of the distribution of quasars helped to discredit the formerly accepted “steady-state” theory of the evolution of the universe. His work has provided precious insight into the infancy of the universe, the so-called “dark ages” immediately following the Big Bang. In addition to his theoretical work, he is acclaimed for his ability to present complex scientific concepts to a nonprofessional audience. Besides his more than 500 scientific papers and academic works, he has published over half a dozen books for the general public, including <em>Gravity’s Fatal Attraction </em>and <em>Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others. </em> A senior figure in the British scientific community, he is the former master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a past president of the Royal Society, and now holds the title of Astronomer Royal. Knighted for his services to science in 1992, he was appointed to the House of Lords in 2005 as Baron Rees of Ludlow."/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Lord Martin Rees - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/REES-AP-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180622225332\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180622225332\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180622225332\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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<div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Lord Martin Rees</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Astronomer Royal</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-47460 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-astronomer careers-astrophysicist"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">Science deepens our sense of mystery and wonder about the world around us, but also, it allows us to change the world around us.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> June 23, 1942 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p>Martin John Rees was born in York, England, the only child of two teachers.  His parents founded Bedstone College, a progressive boarding school in Shropshire, near Wales.  Young Martin studied there and at Shrewsbury School until he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with first-class honors in mathematics.  By his own account, he was not initially drawn to astronomy and was considering a career in economics when a series of new discoveries drew his attention from the earthly marketplace to the stars above.</p> <figure id="attachment_47668" style="width: 1956px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47668 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47668 lazyload" alt="" width="1956" height="2912" data-sizes="(max-width: 1956px) 100vw, 1956px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820.jpg 1956w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820-255x380.jpg 255w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820-510x760.jpg 510w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">From 1967 to 1972, Dr. Martin Rees was a staff member at the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, England. After studying at the University of Cambridge, he held postdoctoral positions in the UK and the U.S. 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. (Jonathan Blair/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>New technology, including more powerful telescopes and the first space probes, made the mid-1960s a heady time for astrophysics and cosmology.  The first confirmation of the Big Bang theory of the universe’s origin and the discovery of previously unknown phenomena such as neutron stars and black holes made the study of the stars especially exciting to an ambitious young scientist, eager to make his mark.  Rees completed a Ph.D. in astrophysics at Cambridge in 1967 and undertook postdoctoral research and fellowships in Britain and visiting professorships at Caltech, Princeton, and Harvard in the United States.</p> <figure id="attachment_47662" style="width: 1477px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47662 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47662 lazyload" alt="" width="1477" height="2414" data-sizes="(max-width: 1477px) 100vw, 1477px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences.jpg 1477w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences-233x380.jpg 233w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences-465x760.jpg 465w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1989: <em>Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology</em> by Martin Rees and John Gribbin. In this intriguing exploration of our relationship with the universe, eminent physicist Martin Rees and acclaimed science writer John Gribbin search for the grand design of the universe — and the meaning of the so-called coincidences that allow life to exist on our planet. Rees and Gribbin present the advances in understanding the nature of dark matter (which controls the dynamics, structure, and eventual fate of the universe), explore mini and massive black holes, brown dwarfs, and novel forms of matter such as quark nuggets. Along the way they fascinate us with what scientists have already discovered about cosmic strings, superstrings, and the elusive TOE (theory of everything). They also speculate on the possibility of the existence of other universes and of other intelligent life.</figcaption></figure><p>Returning to Cambridge, he rose quickly in his field.  At age 30, he was elected to the prestigious chair of Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy. He conducted important research in the origin of cosmic microwave background radiation and in the formation and clustering of galaxies.  His early study of the distribution of quasars helped to discredit the previously accepted “steady-state” theory of the universe.  In 1984, he received the Heineman Prize of the American Institute of Physics.</p> <figure id="attachment_47661" style="width: 1324px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47661 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47661 lazyload" alt="" width="1324" height="1945" data-sizes="(max-width: 1324px) 100vw, 1324px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244.jpg 1324w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244-259x380.jpg 259w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244-517x760.jpg 517w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">March 5, 1992: Rt. Hon. Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Labour Party, with some of the leading figures from the fields of sport, education, business and law who contributed to the new party document “Your Land, My Land.” (From left to right, back row) Anthony Scrivener QC, Ken Follett, Sir Martin Rees FRS and Philip Hughes. (From left to right, front row) Penelope Leach, Neil Kinnock, and Dounne Alexander-Moore. In 1992, Rees became a Royal Society research professor, the president of the Royal Astronomical Society, and received a knighthood. (Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>In 1986, Dr. Rees married Caroline Humphrey and they made a home in Cambridge, where, in addition to his professorship, he directed the Institute of Astronomy from 1987 to 1991.  One of the world’s leading cosmologists, he was the first to propose the fantastic — and now widely accepted — theory that high-energy deep-space quasars, such as those seen through the Hubble Space Telescope, derive their energy from enormous black holes.</p> <figure id="attachment_48350" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-48350 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-48350 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1629" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2.jpg 2280w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2-380x272.jpg 380w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2-760x543.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1999: Awards Council member and theoretical physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson presenting the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award to Astronomer Royal Martin Rees at the Summit program in Washington, D.C.</figcaption></figure><p>For many years, he has entertained speculations concerning the “anthropic principle,” the idea that the universe cannot be described without implying the existence of an intelligence capable of perceiving it.  One implication of “anthropic universe” speculation is that a “multiverse,” comprising an unknown number of other cosmic systems, resulted in the natural selection of one that could be perceived by intelligent creatures.  Dr. Rees shared his thoughts on this and many other matters in his 1989 book, <em>Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology</em>.</p> <figure id="attachment_47667" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47667 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47667 lazyload" alt="" width="2000" height="1312" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698.jpg 2000w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698-380x249.jpg 380w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698-760x499.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">May 9, 2003: Countryside campaigner Max Hastings with the Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where they launched a campaign to stop the growing light pollution in the UK. Campaigners say that light pollution — wasted man-made light that illuminates the night sky — obscures the view of the stars and may have an adverse effect on nocturnal creatures and migrating birds. In 2003, Rees published <em>Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning </em>and also received the Albert Einstein Award from the World Cultural Council.<em> </em></figcaption></figure><p>Since the 1990s, he has continued research in the area of gamma-ray bursts and into the end of the so-called “cosmic dark ages” the mysterious period between the Big Bang and the formation of the first stars.  In 1992, he became president of the Royal Astronomical Society and was knighted for his services to science.</p> <figure id="attachment_47663" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47663 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47663 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1457" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770.jpg 2280w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770-380x243.jpg 380w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770-760x486.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 15, 2015: Queen Elizabeth II (front, center) with members of the Order of Merit. Front row, left to right: Professor Sir Michael Howard, Lord May of Oxford, Professor Sir Roger Penrose, Sir Michael Atiyah, the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II, Lord Foster of Thames Bank, Sir Tom Stoppard, Lord Jacob Rothschild, Baroness Boothroyd, Sir David Attenborough. Back row, left to right: Dr. Martin West, the Honourable John Howard, the Right Honourable John Chretien, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Lord Eames, Lord Rees of Ludlow, Neil MacGregor, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Magdi Yacoub, and the Lord Fellowes at Windsor Castle in London, United Kingdom. (John Stillwell)</figcaption></figure><p>To date, Sir Martin is the author or co-author of more than 500 research papers, mainly on astrophysics and cosmology, as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles addressing the challenges that arise at the interface of science, ethics, and public policy. In addition to scientific works such as <em>New Perspectives in Astrophysical Cosmology</em> (1995), he has written half a dozen books for the general reader, including <em>Gravity’s Fatal Attraction (</em>1995).  In 1995, he was named Astronomer Royal.</p> <figure id="attachment_47664" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47664 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47664 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1218" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280.jpg 2280w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280-380x203.jpg 380w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280-760x406.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">July 20, 2015: Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking; cosmologist and astrophysicist Lord Martin Rees; Chairman Emeritus, SETI Institute, Frank Drake; Creative Director of the Interstellar Message, NASA Voyager Ann Druyan; and Professor of Astronomy, University of California, Geoff Marcy attend a press conference on the Breakthrough Life in the Universe Initiatives, hosted by Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking at the Royal Society, London. (Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>In the following years, in addition to his research, he continued to produce books for the general reading public, <em>Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others </em>(1997), <em>Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe</em> (1999) and <em>Our Cosmic Habitat</em> (2001).  Among his concerns are the challenges arising from the application and possible misuse of new technology, in particular, the danger of irreparable damage to our environment.  He addressed these issues in <em>Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century?</em>  (2003; published in the United States as <em>Our Final Hour</em>.)</p> <figure id="attachment_47665" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47665 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47665 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1522" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656.jpg 2280w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656-380x254.jpg 380w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">June 29, 2016: British cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Rees gives a lecture, “From Mars to the Multiverse: the Post-Human Future,” during the Starmus Festival on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife. (Photo: Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>In 2003, Sir Martin received the Albert Einstein Award from the World Cultural Council. The following year, he became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.  He was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Rees of Ludlow in 2005. That same year, he became President of the Royal Society, the world’s oldest independent scientific association, serving in that position until 2010.</p> <figure id="attachment_47692" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47692 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47692 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="2280" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388.jpg 2280w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">October 2017: Academy Awards Council member Lord Martin Rees addresses Academy members at the historic Cliveden House during the American Academy of Achievement’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit.</figcaption></figure><p>He shared his thoughts on the future of science in his 2011 book, <em>From Here to Infinity</em>.  His longtime concern with ethical issues in science, as well as his exploration of the anthropic principle, led to his being awarded the Templeton Prize in 2011, for “affirming life’s spiritual dimension… through insight, discovery or practical works.” Although Lord Rees holds no religious views per se, he has long encouraged respect for religious points of view.</p> <figure id="attachment_47656" style="width: 1425px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-47656 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-47656 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="1425" height="2213" data-sizes="(max-width: 1425px) 100vw, 1425px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future.jpg 1425w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future-245x380.jpg 245w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future-489x760.jpg 489w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2018: <em>On the Future: Prospects for Humanity </em>by Martin Rees. Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various prospects for the future — good and bad — are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterized by short-term thinking, polarizing debates, alarmist rhetoric, and pessimism. In this book, Martin Rees argues that humanity’s future depends on our taking a very different approach to thinking about and planning for tomorrow. (Credit: Princeton University Press)</figcaption></figure><p>His concern with the impact of human activity on climate and environment, as well as the risks posed by the misuse of artificial intelligence and other information technology, led him to co-found, in 2012, the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, an interdisciplinary center “dedicated to the study and mitigation of risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse.” The Centre, based at Cambridge University, seeks “to foster a global community of academics, technologists, and policy-makers working to safeguard humanity.” In 2015, he co-authored the founding report of the Global Apollo Programme, which calls for developed nations to commit to coordinated research to make carbon-free power generation more affordable than coal-burning electricity by the year 2025. His latest book, <em>On the Future: Prospects for Humanity</em>, is scheduled for publication in October 2018.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1999 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.astronomer">Astronomer</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.astrophysicist">Astrophysicist</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> June 23, 1942 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p>One of the world’s leading cosmologists, Lord Rees is renowned for his pioneering work on galaxy formation, quasars, black holes and the origin of the universe. His early study of the distribution of quasars helped to discredit the formerly accepted “steady-state” theory of the evolution of the universe. His work has provided precious insight into the infancy of the universe, the so-called “dark ages” immediately following the Big Bang.</p> <p>In addition to his theoretical work, he is acclaimed for his ability to present complex scientific concepts to a nonprofessional audience. Besides his more than 500 scientific papers and academic works, he has published over half a dozen books for the general public, including <em>Gravity’s Fatal Attraction </em>and <em>Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others. </em></p> <p>A senior figure in the British scientific community, he is the former master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a past president of the Royal Society, and now holds the title of Astronomer Royal. Knighted for his services to science in 1992, he was appointed to the House of Lords in 2005 as Baron Rees of Ludlow.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/_WGoHm8ly7k?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_47_58_23.Still013-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_47_58_23.Still013-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe</h2> <div class="sans-2">Buckinghamshire, England</div> <div class="sans-2">October 21, 2017</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Lord Rees, you’ve noted that our earth is some 45 million centuries old. You’ve expressed concern about one particular century in all that, and that is the 21st century. Can you tell us your concerns about that?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: This is the first century in those 45 million where one species — one dominant species, namely us — can control the planet’s future. And that’s important because astronomers know that although there have been 45 million centuries in the past, the sun is less than halfway through its life. So there are another 60 million centuries to come before the sun dies. And indeed, the expanding universe may go on forever. I like to quote Woody Allen who says, “Eternity is very long. Especially towards the end.”</p> <p>So we are less than halfway through the life of our solar system, but even in this huge time perspective, extending hundreds of millions of years in the past and the future, this century is indeed special, because it’s the first when one species — the human species — can determine the future, because we are dominant on this planet, and we have huge numbers of people with powerful technology.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/5XPvwjwSDjM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_53_59_10.Still014-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_53_59_10.Still014-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I do worry about whether we will get through this century without severe setbacks. I think there are two different classes of risk we need to worry about. The first is the category which we are imposing collectively because there are more of us on this planet, a growing population, and each of us is more demanding of energy and resources. There are now nearly seven-and-a-half billion people on the planet; there will be nine billion by mid-century. We’re not sure what will happen after that; it could go up even more. But also, we’ll all be more demanding in terms of energy and resources. And of course, we hope that the developing world will close the gap with more fortunate countries like ours, and that will, of course, increase the pressure on energy and resources. So there’s a risk that this is going to lead to despoliation of the environment — climate change; it could have severe long-term effects — and to disruption of ecologies, leading to mass extinctions. And of course, those will be irreversible degradations of our environment. So we will not be leaving an environment for future generations as good as the one we inherited. So that’s a serious concern, our collective effects.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/H4mCFM_W1jg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_48_06_25.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_48_06_25.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>There’s a different kind of concern which also worries me, which is that because of powerful technologies, in particular biotech and cybertech and AI, individuals are much more empowered than they were in the past. That, therefore, means that an individual or a small group can, by error or by design, have a consequence, a damaging consequence, that could cascade globally. I like to say that the global village will have its village idiots, but they will now have a global range. And this is something which worries me very much. The new technologies are very exciting, and of course, we depend on new technology in order to feed nine billion people and to provide a good life for them all. So we don’t want to slow down technology. But we do want to redirect it and control it if we can, so as to minimize these serious risks because we are in an interconnected world where a disaster in one region will cascade around the world. No part of the world is isolated from what happens elsewhere now. So we need to be very concerned, and that is why I do worry about how we will get through this century without severe setbacks.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_47660" style="width: 835px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47660 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47660 lazyload" alt="" width="835" height="1377" data-sizes="(max-width: 835px) 100vw, 835px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers.jpg 835w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers-230x380.jpg 230w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers-461x760.jpg 461w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1999: <em>Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe</em> by Martin Rees. In this book, Rees demonstrates how just six cosmic numbers, imprinted in the “Big Bang,” determine essential features of the physical cosmos.</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Why do you think climate change is so difficult to address politically?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/G7XgVBNGUSA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_40_38_27.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_40_38_27.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Martin Rees: I think climate change raises special problems because, first of all, the science is still rather uncertain. Everyone agrees that the temperature on average is going up and that, more importantly, that rise in temperature is going to trigger a big global change in weather patterns, The regions where you have the monsoons, where you have droughts, et cetera, will change. And this will be a disruptive effect on the climate, far more rapid than any natural changes in climate that have happened in the past. But, of course, these timescales, although very short in an astronomical context, are long in a political context, and we’re talking about what will happen in the next few decades and what might make the lives of people now just born — who will be alive in the 22nd century — worse than they are now.</p> <p>And it’s very hard to persuade politicians to do something now which will not benefit the here and now — between now and the next election — but will have an effect on the lives of children now born who will be alive at the end of the century, and also on the lives of people in the low parts of the world, who will be more affected than we are in Europe and North America.</p> <p>So that’s why it’s difficult to deal with because, obviously, the focus of most action is the urgent and the parochial rather than the long-term. And for that reason, I think it’s very hard to keep dealing with climate change high on the agenda. I personally think we should be prepared to pay an insurance premium now, as it were, to remove a potentially serious risk from the lives of future generations. But it’s hard to make that point. We’ve got to think of ways in which we can keep that on the agenda.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tk8ZlxG3kpo?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=362" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_17_39_29.Still017-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_17_39_29.Still017-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>One policy which I think we can realistically adopt and get countries to accept is to pursue accelerated research and development into all forms of carbon-free energy because those involve exciting new technology and give a boost to the nation that develops them first. And the faster the development proceeds, the sooner will the cost come down. So, for instance, India — which clearly needs to have new sources of power to replace stoves burning wood and dung, which is hugely damaging environmentally — they’ll be able to afford clean energy and not build coal-fired power stations. So we’ve got to accelerate the R&D so that clean energy is as cheap as coal-fired power stations. And then, without any further incentive, India and other countries will go directly to clean energy, leapfrogging the phase when they have huge fossil-fuel power stations. So developing clean energy as quickly as possible is a sort of win-win situation for the world. So that should be our priority. And the amount of R&D in those areas is very small compared to defense R&D, for instance, and medical R&D. And why shouldn’t it be comparable? Indeed, I would say that one of the most inspirational goals for young engineers should be to provide clean and affordable energy for the developing, as well as the developed, world. That would be a very exciting development.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ur8oAuzY59s?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=479&end=605&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_17_46_18.Still018-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_17_46_18.Still018-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>The other thing we can do is really to persuade politicians that they should think about long-term questions. And they will only do this if the public persuades them it’s important. And here, I think the great religions of the world are important. And I would cite as an example the papal encyclical in the summer of 2015, which was a very clear statement about the risks to the natural environment caused by climate change. The Pope declared far more clearly than his predecessors that humans have an obligation to the nonhuman world and the rest of God’s creation, as it were. And this, I think, had a big effect in forging a consensus at the climate change conference in Paris in December 2015. And the reason for that was that, whatever one thinks of the Catholic Church, no one can doubt its long-term vision, its global reach, and its concern with the world’s poor. Therefore, that had a big effect. Politicians don’t listen just to experts. In fact, I know many people who have been political advisers and have been frustrated that the politicians don’t pay much attention to them because they have more urgent issues. But they do pay attention to what’s in the press and what’s in their inbox. So if one can ensure that these issues, like climate change, are more prominent in the public consciousness — and therefore in the press and their inboxes — then they will pay regard to them. And the intervention of the Pope did have such an effect. It had a global effect. He got a standing ovation at the UN. It really had a big effect on opinion in Latin America, both among the public and political leaders, and in Africa and in East Asia — sadly, not much in the American Republican Party, but certainly around the rest of the world.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_47726" style="width: 1696px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47726 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47726 lazyload" alt="" width="1696" height="2527" data-sizes="(max-width: 1696px) 100vw, 1696px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover.jpg 1696w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover-255x380.jpg 255w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover-510x760.jpg 510w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">March 2003: <em>Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century — on Earth and Beyond</em> by Martin Rees. In this book, Rees discusses a range of existential risks confronting humanity and controversially estimates that the probability of extinction before 2100 CE is around 50 percent, based on the possibility of malign or accidental release of destructive technology.</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>In some recent addresses, you’ve made a very interesting analogy between an asteroid hitting the earth as opposed to the long-term danger of man-made climate change. Could you repeat that?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Yes. When people know I’m an astronomer, they think that what I worry most about is the risk of asteroid impacts. Now, of course, there is such a risk, and it’s interesting that that’s the one risk that we understand best because we understand how many asteroids there are and what happens if they impact, so we can quantify it. It’s not a very high risk. There’s a chance of a few in a million that we’ll be killed by a huge asteroid landing on Earth in what would otherwise be our lifetimes, so it’s a small risk and it’s not getting any bigger. The risks I worry about most are the risks that are caused by human action and by new technology. They are getting bigger.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/VvJ5aEnmrv0?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_25_05_29.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_25_05_29.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Martin Rees: So let’s suppose astronomers had found evidence that there was an asteroid heading for the earth and that we calculated it might hit the earth in 2100. That’s 83 years from now. And suppose we could say that with ten percent confidence, not with certainty. What would the reaction of the public be? Would we say, “Well, in 50 years’ time, we’ll have better technology to deal with it. It may miss us anyway, so let’s do nothing now.” I don’t think we would. I think if that were the case, we would do our damnedest, starting now, to see what we could do to make sure that we could somehow deflect it or minimize its impact. And here’s the analogy with climate change because in the context of our knowledge of climate change now, we can say that there is a ten percent chance that by the year 2100, climate change will have triggered irreversible tipping points, rather like the melting of Greenland’s ice, which would eventually raise sea level by about seven or eight meters and also cause huge global changes in climate. We can’t be sure, but that’s likely. My view is that we should already be prepared to pay the insurance premium to reduce that risk now. We shouldn’t say, “Well, 50 years from now, people will be richer and they will have better technology. Let’s leave it to them.” We should start now. And I think the analogue of the asteroid indicates that it is worth paying an insurance premium now to eliminate a risk, even if it’s an uncertain risk. We shouldn’t just say it may not happen. We shouldn’t say that they can deal with it better in 50 years than we can now. We should already start to see what we can do about it.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>You’ve noted the potential dangers in a couple of other areas, such as cybertechnology and artificial intelligence. Could you outline your concerns in these areas as well? </strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/mDN8ap6cGAc?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_40_33_00.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_40_33_00.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Martin Rees: Cyber attacks are becoming very, very serious, and they’re an example of how just one person can produce a really major disruption by disrupting electric power grids and things like that. This is a new kind of warfare if nations engage in it, but even an individual could cause pretty serious damage.</p> <p>And similarly with biothreats — the new techniques, for instance, to make the influenza virus more virulent and more transmissible. These have been developed in a few years — a few years ago — and in 2014, the American federal government stopped funding research into these because it was thought to be dangerous knowledge and the risk of the virus escaping, et cetera. So that’s an example where there’s a new technique. And of course, we’ve got the wonderful new gene-editing technique, CRISPR/Cas9, which has huge benefits but also could have unintended consequences if so-called “gene drive” is used to make species extinct, and that has runaway consequences. So there’s a big risk with these things.</p> <p>Now, quite rightly, there are lots of discussions within scientific academies and elsewhere about how to regulate these new technologies — particularly bio — modeled on a famous conference in Asilomar 40 years ago, in the early days of recombinant DNA, when the researchers agreed to a moratorium and to follow certain guidelines. And in that spirit, there have been, in the last two or three years, similar gatherings of academicians and experts. But things are different this time. They’re different because far more nations are involved. It’s far more widespread. And also, there’s much stronger commercial pressure, which there wasn’t 40 years ago; there was no biotech industry.</p> <p>And for that reason, I think whatever guidelines we have — and feel should be adopted on prudential or ethical grounds — enforcing them is going to be very hard. I would say it’s going to be as hopeless to enforce them globally as it is to enforce the drug laws or the tax laws. We’ve had precious little success in enforcing either of those. And this I find very scary.</p> <p>The point is that the equipment that is needed is very modest. Cyber attacks, you just need access to the Internet, and the techniques needed for some of these gene modification techniques are available in university labs and industry, et cetera. It’s not like nuclear, where you can’t build a nuclear weapon in your garage, but it’s going to be conspicuous, and therefore, it’s feasible to have inspection and monitoring of nuclear developments. We can’t do that in these cases, and so my worry is whatever can be done in the bio and cyber area will be done somewhere by someone, and I don’t know what we can do to eliminate that risk.</p> <p>We can certainly try and reduce it, and I think we should focus very hard on ways to reduce it, to have surveillance, et cetera. Although, there again, there’s going to be tension between security, freedom, and privacy if we want to try and guard against individual lone wolves, as it were, misusing this technology. But I think it’s something we do need to worry about, and that’s — even on time scales of ten or twenty years — what worries me most.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_47727" style="width: 1662px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47727 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47727 lazyload" alt="" width="1662" height="2327" data-sizes="(max-width: 1662px) 100vw, 1662px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back.jpg 1662w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back-271x380.jpg 271w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back-543x760.jpg 543w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2011: <em>From Here to Infinity: A Vision for the Future of Science</em> by Martin Rees. Recognized as an expert on the political and ethical impacts of science, Martin Rees demonstrates how we must solve the new challenges we face — from population growth to climate change — by devising strategies with a long-term, global perspective. In the process, he offers insights into the prospects for future discoveries while also explaining science’s intrinsic limits. Martin Rees reminds us that science should be a source of pleasure and wonder for specialists and nonspecialists alike.</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>You wrote a book some years ago that you called <em>The Final Century</em>. It had another title in the U.S., didn’t it?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: They called it <em>The Final Hour</em> for some reason, yes. They might like instant gratification in the reverse, but it was a rather inappropriate title because we’ve got to think on the time scale of the century. But the theme of that book really was that this century is special, and we do have to worry about the fact that we are now empowered by these new technologies. And I did, in that book, already highlight these concerns. I think — in the subsequent decade or so — I think these concerns have been vindicated because the techniques have got much more powerful.</p> <p><strong>You’ve suggested that there might be a post-human form of intelligence and that we’re probably not the smartest creatures that the future will see. Can you talk about that?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: We certainly shouldn’t think we’re the culmination. Of course, most people — unless they’re creationists in Kentucky or parts of the Muslim world — are aware of the outcome of billions of years of Darwinian selection. But I think even most people who are happy with that somehow feel that we humans are the top of the tree. We’re the end of this process. No astronomers could believe that because astronomers know the time lying ahead is also billions of years. We’re not even in a halfway stage.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q1Trxhnmtpw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_39_49_14.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_39_49_14.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>As to what will happen in the future, we don’t know. Will it be more organic creatures or not? I would argue that it will be — not natural selection, Darwinian selection — but it will be a new kind of intelligent design where we humans design future organisms. Or more likely, in my opinion, where we develop electronic intelligences which may, within a century or so, surpass what humans do. So it could be that humans are the culmination of organic evolution, but we will jump-start the transition to a new phase of evolution, which will be electronic and entities which have more intelligence, but of course, aren’t biological at all. As to how this will happen, I actually think it’s going to happen on Mars, not here on the earth. And the reason I say that is that if we think about space exploration and space travel, then the case for sending people into space is now getting weaker because robots can do all the things that humans did in the past.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_47657" style="width: 2097px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47657 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47657 lazyload" alt="" width="2097" height="3000" data-sizes="(max-width: 2097px) 100vw, 2097px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730.jpg 2097w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730-266x380.jpg 266w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730-531x760.jpg 531w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">January 8, 2012: Astronomer Royal Martin Rees gives a lecture, “From Planets to Universes,” at Stephen Hawking’s 70th birthday symposium lecture at the University of Cambridge. In his presentation, Martin Rees stated, “Back then, Stephen and I shared two bits of good luck. First, we were both in the research group at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in Cambridge led by physicist Dennis Sciama — a charismatic and enthusiastic man. Stephen was two years ahead of me. George Ellis had just finished his Ph.D., and Brandon Carter was an exact contemporary. We all had a second piece of good luck: the mid-1960s saw the birth of relativistic astrophysics. Astronomers discovered the first compelling evidence that our universe had expanded from the Big Bang. And they had discovered objects like neutron stars and quasars, where Einstein’s theory was crucial, not just a tiny correction to Newton’s. There were also mathematical insights, especially from Roger Penrose, whose work with Stephen and with George Ellis deepened our understanding of black holes and the Big Bang.” (Justin Tallis)</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p>So humans won’t go into space for any practical reason. They’ll only go just for exploration and for an adventure and for thrills. And the people who go will be thrillseekers, like in the U.S., Mr. Baumgartner, who fell supersonically from a high altitude balloon; or in England, a guy called Ranulph Fiennes, who dragged a sled across the Antarctic in winter; and all the crazy things like that. It’ll be people like that who will go on the expeditions and be the first people to try and live on Mars.</p> <p>And Elon Musk of SpaceX, he’s himself said that he hopes to die on Mars but not on impact. He’s now 46 years old, so he may make that. So there will be, by the end of the century, a community of really eccentric adventurers on Mars. And I think that it’ll be them who develop these new techniques because I hope we’ll be able to regulate the use of both bio and cybertechnology on Earth — there will be regulation. It won’t be fully effective, but I hope it will be effective.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/LfGCtXrc4xk?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_39_45_25.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_39_45_25.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>These people trying to live on Mars, they’re very ill-adapted. Humans are very ill-adapted to living in space, especially on Mars. Gravity is different; there’s no atmosphere, et cetera. So they’d have every incentive to use all the techniques of cyber and bio to adapt to that alien environment. And that may involve trying to change and generate intelligent electronic species. And once you’ve got them, then of course, they don’t want an atmosphere at all. They may prefer zero-G, and they’ll go off into space, and this will be the start of a post-human era. And of course, if these entities are near immortal, then a long voyage to the stars won’t deter them. So I think, if you think of the future, then it may be that it’ll be a future of inorganic electronic entities which will spread from our solar system and far beyond in the billions of years that lie ahead. So I think that’s a potential future. But we are well-adapted to being on Earth, so we have less incentive to do it. That’s why I think it’s the crazy adventurers who will be the pioneers of triggering the transition to a new species, as it were. So that’s why I would cheer them on even if I may not want to join them.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_47651" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47651 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47651 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884.jpg 2280w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">October 2017: Academy Awards Council member Lord Martin Rees with delegate Julius Weitzdörfer, Director of Studies in Law and a Charles and Katharine Darwin Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, during the International Achievement Summit’s Banquet of the Golden Plate dinner held at Claridge’s Hotel in London.</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>The T.S. Eliot poem says, “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper…” How does the world end in your view?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vw9x5qdqWZo?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_24_24_18.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_24_24_18.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Martin Rees: Well, of course, the world could end with a bang all too soon, and if that happened, then this would foreclose the billion-year future of post-human evolution. But of course, what I think is a more plausible scenario is that here on Earth, we will continue as humans, with some setbacks, and with some evolution, but that life will spread beyond the earth. And that that life spreading beyond the earth will have a future of maybe billions of years, evolving in ways we can’t predict. And evolving in ways that are not Darwinian selection but intelligent design by the creatures themselves, which will have human intelligence. So that’s one scenario. Of course, the other thing which will affect the long-term future is whether there’s life out there already. Because it’s gratifying, in a way, that even if life was unique to this earth — making our pale blue dot in the cosmos important, not just to us but on a cosmic scale — then that doesn’t mean that life will forever be a sort of minor feature of the galaxy. It could spread, in its far future, elsewhere.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180622225332if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/kggY3fRO5Ic?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_18_26_19.Still015-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rees-Martin-2017-MasterEdit.00_18_26_19.Still015-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>But of course, one of the fascinating issues for us as astronomers, and indeed for biologists, is to ask, “Is there life out there already?” One of the things we are doing now is understanding the likelihood of life. And also, can we detect it?</p> <p>There are some projects now to actually look for any evidence for something artificial out there. Some artifacts, or some kind of transmission in radio or optical light, which is not natural, which is either something beeping away or some very narrow band signal which can’t be explained naturally. Because if we could find any evidence for something which was artificial like that, that would be a huge discovery because it would show that concepts of logic and physics weren’t limited to the hardware in human skulls but had emerged somewhere else. Of course, what is out there, it may not be anything like us. It could be some machine made by some long-dead civilization, which is beeping away or malfunctioning in some way.</p> <p>I think, even if we detect something which is artificial, it’s most unlikely it’s a message and aimed for us, et cetera, as some science-fiction stories say. But nonetheless, if we could find anything manifestly artificial out in the cosmos, that would tell us that the cosmos is even more interesting than we think it is because complex evolution would have happened somewhere else. So that’s why I’m extremely in favor of using all the techniques we now have to look for evidence for something artificial out there, as well as, of course, trying to understand the natural environments, not just on Earth but in the cosmos.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Let’s go back to the beginning. Did you come to science on your own or were your parents scientific?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: No, my parents were teachers but not scientific. I had no particular scientific background. I was interested in numbers and nature and was sent to university and studied math and then didn’t want to be a mathematician and then decided to apply to something. I thought, at one stage, I’d do economics, but then I went for physical sciences and astronomy. I might have been equally happy doing economics, but I’ve been very fortunate to have had a ringside seat for many of the exciting developments in astronomy over most of my career, and the rest of science, too.</p> <p><strong>Can you recall what first spurred your interest in astronomy?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: I’m not someone who had a focus on astronomy from an early age. I studied math and science and did math at university. But I decided that I didn’t want to be a mathematician. I like to think in a more synthetic and synoptic way. And so I thought of being an economist at one stage but then, almost by chance, I ended up enrolling as a graduate student in Cambridge and was assigned to a very inspiring supervisor, an adviser who was in astronomy.</p> <p>And after a year, I realized that was a good decision. Not only because I had a wonderful mentor but also because this was a time in the mid-1960s when astronomy was opening up. For the first time, you had evidence for black holes, that there was a Big Bang in the universe, and that we could understand how the universe evolved. It’s always good in a subject to be in at the beginning because then the old guys have no big advantage over the young guys, so you could make a mark fairly quickly. I was quite lucky in that sense.</p> <p>But actually, what’s made me feel even luckier in my career is that the rate of discovery has not declined at all. Within the last few years, we’ve had discovering planets around other stars, an entirely new field that makes the night sky far more interesting; also, gravitational waves from space and all kinds of things. So it’s a wonderful subject, where, as our knowledge has advanced, the periphery has gotten longer, and we can now address questions that couldn’t even have been posed 40 years ago.</p> <p><strong>How did you get from being a novice astronomer to where you are today?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: I think I’ve been lucky in a number of respects, in that I started to work in a subject — astronomy and space — at a time when it was really taking off with new techniques and new ideas, and I did this in a university and in a community of colleagues who were very stimulating. So I’ve been very lucky to have a ringside seat, as it were, for the developments of a science — understanding the cosmos — which I think, when the history of science is written, will be one of the sort of most exciting chapters for the last few decades. I’ve been lucky to be part of that.</p> <p>But also, I’ve been, in my later years, involved in policy regarding the applications of science, not just rocketry in space, but also bio and cyber, because I’ve been in a university where I’ve got to know these people. I had the privilege of being president of the Royal Society, which is the British academy of sciences, and involved in policy areas. So I feel I’ve had the chance of being close to many of the people involved in changing the world through other sciences, quite apart from the science that I’m an expert in — and also, to have been able to do this in an environment which is very stimulating, and to have had contact with very many people through this work.</p> <p>So I think I’ve been very lucky. But I think the main theme, I would say, for my work, is it’s been very collaborative and interactive. I’m not the kind of person who likes to sit alone and think through some very complicated logical or mathematical problem. I like interacting and sharing ideas, and I’ve been very lucky to work in fields where that’s actually been a constructive thing to do. And I hope that I’ve stimulated others to do work which I have not been able to do myself and to raise wider consciousness of some of these concerns which stem from science. Because science deepens our sense of mystery and wonder about the world around us, but also, it allows us to change the world around us, and we’ve got to make sure we change it in benign ways and minimize the downsides. So that’s been something I’ve been concerned about, certainly in the last decade or two.</p> <p><strong>You’ve done a great deal of work in the area of quasars and their relationship to black holes, their source of energy. Can you describe your role in that process of discovery?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Well, we know that the basic large-scale constituents of the universe are galaxies — like our Milky Way — each containing about a hundred million stars. But we also know that these entities, which are basically, apparently, stars orbiting around a central hub, are centered around a black hole in the center of the galaxy.</p> <p>And that black hole is often quiescent. There’s one in our Milky Way which weighs about four million times as much as the sun. But other galaxies have these in them. And if they are just quiescent, we don’t see them. But if gas falls into them, then the gas swirls in and gets magnetized and very hot. And that gas, in falling into the black hole, releases far more energy than the hundred billion stars in the galaxy.</p> <p>So the brightest objects we see, when we look with our telescope, in the universe, are these so-called quasars, where the light of all the stars is outshone by the central concentrated light associated with a black hole. And this is important in itself because it allows us to study extreme conditions where gravity is very strong. But also, it allows us to probe further out in the universe and therefore further back in the past.</p> <p>Because the further out you look in the universe, the longer the light has taken to get to us, and therefore, the further you’re looking back in the past. So the fact that these quasars are so bright has made it possible for us to actually understand what the universe was like, not merely now, but one billion, two billion, three billion, and up to twelve billion years ago by looking at these quasars.</p> <p>This, therefore, means that if we want to try and understand how our universe has evolved, and how, from some Big Bang, it eventually turned into the complex cosmos we are part of, we can do better than geologists. We can look not just at fossils of the past, but we can actually <em>observe</em> the past because when we look far away we are looking back. So we can actually see what galaxies were like at different stages in their development.</p> <p><strong>How do you see your role in the advances we’ve seen in your field?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: I’m a sort of theorist and interpreter of data, and what’s carried the subject forward in the last 50 years has been really improvements in instrumentation — much more powerful telescopes, better ways of registering faint light, and of course, being able to send things up into space above the blurry and absorption effect of the earth’s atmosphere. So it’s these huge technical advances which have driven the subject. I mean armchair theory doesn’t get you very far by itself. We’re no wiser than Aristotle was, and the reason we’ve got these advances has been essentially the technology.</p> <p>And also, of course, understanding raw physics, because the atoms we see in galaxies are the same as the ones we study in the lab, so we understand all about the physics. But just as a footnote to that, there’s another motive for studying astronomy apart from just exploring cosmic environments. And that’s that the universe provides a laboratory where we can observe conditions far more extreme than we could ever simulate here on Earth — extreme densities, extremely strong gravity, extremely high temperatures and all that. So if you want to, as it were, test the laws of nature to the breaking point and understand new ones, the best way to do it is to look up in the sky.</p> <p>Just in September of 2017, there was an amazing discovery which excited us, when, for the first time, we found evidence of two neutron stars, amazing objects, where the mass of a million Earths is packed into something about ten miles across. Two of those spiraled together, and they spiraled together, and before they merged, they were going around each other at several hundred revs per second, and there was a real splat when they collided. This was observed by a gravitational wave detector, and then two seconds after that, it was found that there was a gamma-ray flash, and then there’s an afterglow, which is still being watched months later. So that’s an example of where we can use all the techniques for observation to try and piece together what happened in this very extreme event, which obviously, we could never simulate here on Earth.</p> <p><strong>How have these revelations supported or undermined Albert Einstein’s theories about the universe?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Albert Einstein, of course, gave us a theory of gravity, which gave deeper insights into gravity. We’ve had, ever since Sir Isaac Newton, a theory of gravity which works pretty well and is sufficient to understand the orbit of planets and to guide space probes to the planets, et cetera. But it breaks down if the speeds get very high or if gravity gets very strong. And there are places in the cosmos where gravity is strong.</p> <p>Einstein’s theory not only has broader applicability, but it gives a deeper insight into why gravity behaves the way it does. He had a new way of looking at gravity and linking space and time. And the most extreme manifestations of Einstein’s theory are black holes, where an object has contracted, got so small that not even light can escape it’s gravitational field. And it leaves a sort of gravitational imprint frozen in the space that’s left. Black holes were probably the most remarkable conjecture from Einstein’s theory, but the evidence for them didn’t come, really, until the quasars in the late 1960s, which were the first indirect evidence. But since that time, it’s been possible to understand how gas flows near a black hole, and much more recently, to study what happens when black holes crash together and produce gravitational waves, which is a little ripple in space itself.</p> <p>So I would say that over the last 50 years, Einstein’s theory has been vindicated. Fifty years ago, there were only a few tests of it, which weren’t very precise, and they only applied when it was weak. But now I think we’ve got very strong reasons for believing that it is the right insight into space and time, and black holes are governed by the equations of Einstein. Also, that the early Big Bang, which set our universe expanding, was governed by those same equations. So we do have a very good theory which explains gravity and the large-scale structure of the universe.</p> <p><strong>What is your own relationship to Einstein and his work?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Well, of course, I never met him; he died in 1955. I think he is really rather special in the history of science. There’s an interesting contrast between creativity in the arts and the sciences. I mean in the arts, whether you’re outstanding or just average, your work has individuality, but it may not last. If you’re a scientist, in most cases, your work may last — you’ve added one brick to the edifice of public knowledge — but it doesn’t have individuality. If you hadn’t done it, someone else would have done it. And that’s true of almost all of science. Einstein is almost an exception to that, in that, if Einstein hadn’t existed, the ideas that we now associate with him would have gradually emerged, but it would have taken much longer.</p> <p>So he made a far more distinctive imprint in that he was motivated not by some kind of observations. The ideas weren’t already in the air, as they normally are when science advances, but it was pure thought that led him to this. And had it not been for Einstein, it would have been maybe decades before we had an equivalent theory of gravity. So he made, I think, an especially distinctive imprint and therefore had more individuality in what he contributed to science. In most cases, it doesn’t really matter because if A doesn’t do something, B soon will.</p> <p>One of my favorite scientific authors is Peter Medawar, and he had a lovely statement in one of his books, where he expressed this contrast by saying that if a scientist doesn’t do something, someone else will. But he said that when Wagner took ten years off in the middle of the <em>Ring</em> cycle to compose <em>Meistersinger</em> and <em>Tristan</em>, he didn’t think that someone was going to scoop him on <em>Götterdämmerung</em>. So that’s the big difference between creativity in the arts and in sciences.</p> <p><strong>You’ve done some work that approaches the intersection of spirituality and science. These are things that usually lead in different directions. Could you talk about that?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Well, I’d be diffident about that. I think you’re probably asking that question because I received the Templeton Prize, which is given for those sorts of things. But the Templeton Prize is also given for work on big questions — or it was at that time — and I think I can say I <em>do</em> work on big questions. I don’t answer them, but I work on them. But in terms of spirituality, I would just say that thinking about these questions does stimulate mystery and wonder.</p> <p>It doesn’t erase it, but it stimulates mystery and wonder, the more you understand. And as regards to the Templeton Prize, it’s often given to people of genuine spirituality. I’m not a religious believer at all, and I recall that when I got the prize, Freeman Dyson — a great physicist who had also won the prize — he sent me a note saying he felt better about his prize because I’d done equally little to deserve it, to him, because we were the two people who weren’t really especially religious but had been given the prize because we had both worked on the big questions and, of course, appreciated that there should be a peaceful coexistence between religion and science.</p> <p><strong>That’s been a little difficult for some people to comprehend. Often religion and science seem to be in opposition.</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: I mean obviously, if religion claims to give dogmatic answers to scientific questions, then of course it’s invading territory where it has no particular credentials. And of course, if people say the world started 6,000 years ago, we know that’s obviously completely wrong. So I think science can’t coexist with dogmatic kinds of religion like that. But there are no sophisticated believers who would accept that. I’m on the Council of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and I know the views of the Catholic Church establishment on this, and they’re very happy now with evolution. And there’s no real conflict, provided that religion doesn’t really invade the territory of empirical science.</p> <p>But I think, as regards religion, I am sort of sympathetic to religious practice. I am happy to participate in church services. I was brought up in England, in the English church, and I value the community aspects of that church. I value the wonderful aesthetic accretions, both the architecture and the music, and I’m happy to participate in common rituals. But that doesn’t mean I accept the Christian dogma, and I think if I was born in Iran, I would go to the mosque in exactly the same spirit.</p> <p><strong>Before we leave astronomy, what do you think is the next frontier, and are we working on it?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: I think there are two basic frontiers. One is to push back to the very, very early universe. We understand, with a great deal of confidence, what happened in the Big Bang after the first microsecond was over because after the first microsecond, the conditions in the universe were no more extreme than we can simulate in a lab.</p> <p>So we have fairly good evidence for what happened from a millisecond after the Big Bang, a microsecond after the Big Bang, to the present. But if we try and extrapolate a bit further to the first tiny, tiny fraction of a second, then the conditions, in terms of density and temperature and energy, were more extreme than we can simulate. And therefore, we lose our foothold in empirical physics; and therefore, things are more uncertain.</p> <p>And we would like to have a theory which allows us to be more confident about those very early stages. Incidentally, that theory is a special challenge because it will involve achieving one of the summits of 21st century science which hasn’t yet been reached, which is to unify Einstein’s theory of gravity with the quantum principle.</p> <p>Einstein’s gravity applies to things on the cosmic scale — stars and planets, et cetera — and the quantum theory applies to the microworld of atoms. We have no theory that combines those two. That doesn’t matter in most of science because if you’re a chemist, you don’t have to worry about the gravitational effect between different atoms in a molecule. It’s very weak. On the other hand, if you’re an astronomer, you don’t need to worry about the quantum fuzziness in the orbit of a planet because it’s so big that that’s negligible. But if we want to understand the very beginning of the universe, when the entire observable universe could have been squeezed to microscopic size, then clearly we need a theory which is going to incorporate gravity and also incorporate the quantum principle. And that’s what we don’t yet have. So one of the challenges, obviously, is to take more steps towards reaching that summit of a unified theory because only then will we be able to have a firmer view for what happened in the very early beginning.</p> <p>So that’s one frontier. Another quite different area of astronomy which is developing fast is looking for planets around other stars. The night sky has become hugely more interesting in the last ten or twenty years because we now know that most of the stars you see in the sky are not just points of light. They’re surrounded by retinues of planets, just as the sun is surrounded by the earth and the other familiar planets. And until twenty years ago, we had no evidence for this. But now we know that most stars have planets around them and that, in our galaxy, there are probably a billion planets rather like the earth, in the sense of having orbits where water could exist and being about the size of the earth. This is fascinating to study and, of course, motivates the thought of whether life could have emerged and evolved on these.</p> <p>So the subject of exobiology— trying to understand these planets and to see if there’s evidence for life on them — is, I think, going to be really exciting. At the moment, the planets are only really inferred indirectly by looking at the star they’re orbiting around and seeing their effect on the star — making it a bit dimmer if they transit in front of it or causing a bubble due to their gravity. But with the next generation of telescopes, we’ll be able to actually analyze the light from the planets themselves, and that’ll tell us whether they have a biosphere, whether there’s evidence for oxygen — water vapor and things like that — and that’s going to be very exciting.</p> <p>Of course, we want to understand the origin of life because even though we understand how Darwinian selection allowed — over four billion years —simple life in the young earth to evolve into the complex biosphere of which we’re a part, we don’t yet understand how life began here on Earth, in the sense of what triggered the transition from complex chemistry to the first replicating, metabolizing systems which we call “alive.” Serious people are working on that, and I hope they make progress. And if they make progress, it’ll tell us two other things. It’ll tell us: Was this such a rare fluke that it wouldn’t have happened elsewhere, or would we expect it to have happened on these other Earthlike planets? Secondly, it’ll tell us whether the DNA-RNA basis of life on Earth is uniquely special, as it were, or whether there could be life based on quite different chemistry, maybe even without water. We don’t know those questions. So that’s a fascinating frontier of astronomy and science.</p> <p>So I would say there are three frontiers of science. There’s the very small, the quantum world; the very large, the cosmic world; and we want to unify those to understand the Big Bang. But there’s a third frontier of science, which is a very complicated world. And that’s the everyday world, especially biological things. That’s quite different because the challenge there is to understand complexity. Biologists aren’t held up by not understanding subnuclear physics or by not understanding Einstein’s theory. They are held up because even the smallest organism is far more complicated than an atom or a star.</p> <p><strong>When many of us were children, we learned about the sun and the moon and nine planets and that was it. It seems like the universe is a lot bigger than we thought.</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: It’s a lot bigger, obviously, because we know that our sun is one of a hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, and our Milky Way galaxy is one of about a hundred billion galaxies that we can see at the limits of our telescope. And incidentally, there’s more speculative — I personally think that physical reality is vastly more extensive still than the region we can observe. So there’s been a huge expansion in scale. But I think what’s been even more important is the ability to observe in different wave bands and with greater sensitivity. That’s how we’ve come to map out the universe in more detail and understand more about the physics of the stars and planets and galaxies within it.</p> <p><strong>Tell us about the study of existential risk.</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: I think we have these two categories of risks, which are across this century — which are, of course, either by collective actions affecting the climate or the biosphere, or the risk of a runaway catastrophe caused by misuse of these powerful technologies — of cybertechnology — advanced intelligence that may have human capabilities and may run away.</p> <p>We may have the ability to create artificial intelligence with many human capabilities or to produce drastically different species by modifying the genome. Might as well be playing God on the kitchen table, and that’s a really scary possibility. So I worry about those sorts of threats, as well as the threats stemming from our collective interaction with the environment and the climate. And it has struck me and some of my colleagues that there’s not enough attention given to these threats. We want to use the technology optimally and minimize its downsides. Mistakes are getting higher as these techniques get more powerful. That’s why I think it’s very important to ensure that experts focus on how to assess which of these scenarios can be dismissed as science fiction and which are sufficient that we ought to think about them and address how we can minimize their impact.</p> <p>And not enough people are doing this. There’s far less attention given to these sort of potentially existential risks than to very small risks. There are huge numbers of people thinking about the dangers of carcinogens in food, low radiation doses, making planes safer, avoiding train crashes and things of that kind. But the amount of attention given to these high-consequence/low-probability events whose probability is rising all the time, as technology gets higher, is very low.</p> <p>That’s why we in Cambridge have set up a group to try and focus on these. Cambridge, I think, can claim to be the number-one scientific university in Europe. We in Europe therefore feel we can do something by using our convening power to get experts together. Experts can’t be right; they’ve got a poor record of predictions, but they can do a better job than anyone else in trying to assess which are the concerns we should have high on our agenda and what we can do to minimize them. So that’s what we’re trying to do in Cambridge, to get an interdisciplinary group with a focus on these, to draw on the expertise we have around us nationally, and indeed, internationally, to try and raise these issues up the agenda.</p> <p><strong>Was there a time in your career when you realized that your responsibility as a scientist should lead you to speak out more about these issues?</strong></p> <p>Back in the 1980’s, I was quite involved in the Pugwash Movement for nuclear disarmament, and I was a member of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and things like that. So I spoke and wrote quite a bit about the nuclear threat back then. And I had the privilege through those activities of getting to know some of the most impressive people I’ve ever met, who are some of the physicists who worked at Los Alamos during World War II on the bomb.<strong> </strong>But then they returned to civilian and academic life afterwards and felt an obligation to do all they could to control the powers that they’d helped to unleash. I’m thinking of people like Joseph Rotblat, Hans Bethe, Viki Weisskopf, people like that, really great men. Sadly, they’re no longer with us.</p> <p>I think they set an example for scientists in any area of science that has societal ramifications, which is that even if you are primarily an academic scientist, you should be concerned about the application of your work. You may not yourself do the exploitation of the work, but you should be concerned to ensure that if your work has beneficial applications, someone exploits them. And if it has dangerous applications, efforts are made to reduce their risk.<strong> </strong>That is now a responsibility which I think falls not just on the nuclear scientists, as it did 70 years ago onwards, but on the scientists involved in these other new techniques, particularly microbiology, genetics, artificial intelligence, and cyber techniques. So I think it’s very important that they should be engaged.</p> <p>Of course, scientists should realize that they are only experts in the technology. When we get to other issues which are involved, then political and economic and ethical concerns come in, and scientists are just citizens in those areas. So scientists shouldn’t be decisions makers in how their work is used. But they have a special responsibility to ensure the public is informed. It’s rather like an analysis which my colleague Michael Tier gives, it’s like if you’ve got teenage kids. You can’t necessarily control what they do but you’re a poor parent if you don’t care what they do and what happens to them.</p> <p>Likewise if you’re a scientist, the ideas you come up with are your creations, as it were, and so you ought to care about what use is made of them in the same way, even if you can’t control it. And so, in the same way, I think scientists ought to care, and should try and inform the public and inform politicians. And in informing politicians that is better done via the public, because if there’s public pressure then the politicians will take an interest.</p> <p>And incidentally, if the public is to be an informed citizenry everyone needs to have some feel for science. Because so many of the issues which confront us today — whether it’s health, energy, or environment, or transport — they have a scientific dimension. So if the public debate is to rise above the level of slogans, everyone needs to understand a bit about the science. And the scientists themselves should take a lead in ensuring that that happens. But they should accept that they have no expertise on the politics, the ethics, or the economics.</p> <p><strong>This calls for some sort of conversation between hard science and the social sciences. Are you more of this in the younger generation? In your students for example, or in the delegates who attend the Academy of Achievement summits, are they more receptive to these ideas?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Yes. I’m an academic, so I have a lot to do with students. It’s gratifying that the younger generation is far more concerned about all these issues of the environment, climate and technological risk than their elders. Not surprising in a way, because they will still be alive at the end of the century and so it’s not surprising that they’re concerned. But also some of the brightest of them do really want to engage very deeply with this.</p> <p>In our group at Cambridge, we have managed to get a group of people who are extremely expert, but they don’t want to stick in their stovepipes, they want to interact. So we have a group of people, and two of them have the privilege of participating in the Academy meetings in London just recently, and they are people with backgrounds in law, philosophy, computer science, biosecurity, et cetera. And they realize that they need to get together to address these risks. And of course it is true that many of them do involve the social sciences, et cetera.</p> <p>Let me give you one simple example. Supposing that there was a pandemic which spread to the megacities of the developing world, like Mumbai or Lagos or something like that. It would be dreadful anyway. But does the fact that everyone there now has mobile phones make it better or worse? You could say it allows information and advice to be spread. On the other hand it allows panic and rumor to spread, literally at the speed of light. And that’s an obvious sociological question. You know, how does one use the media and the IT technologies to help to minimize the risk of other disasters? That’s just one example of where you need to get input from sociologists. But that’s true in many other areas, obviously. You want to decide what aspects of technology are going to take off and what are not going to take off.</p> <p>It seems that one important quality in any science, be it astronomy or biology, is patience. Sometimes years can pass before something is proven or disproven. Could you give a little bit of advice for someone interested in science?</p> <p>Martin Rees: Well it’s certainly true that many ideas in science have not been tested for many years later. Einstein’s work wasn’t really vindicated in detail until almost a century later. The first evidence came fairly quickly, but the really strong evidence came a century later. Another example was a particle called the Higgs-Boson, which was predicted by Higgs and indeed other people in the 1960s, and was only discovered by a huge instrument — CERN in Geneva — 50 years after it was proposed.</p> <p>So there are many cases when you have to wait a long time, because it’s often very hard to test some theoretical idea, so theorists have to be patient. I think they should do something else while they’re waiting, and not get focused and obsessed with some idea. But of course, many scientists do have to work for literally decades to develop some technology, and I’ve been privileged to know some people who’ve developed space projects, gravitational wave detectors, et cetera. That’s been a literally multi-decade project with no guarantee of success at the end. I think what I especially admire are the people who persevere against all the odds in a long-term project which may not succeed. It’s not surprising that some of those people are rather obsessive in their style, because otherwise they wouldn’t be motivated.</p> <p>But I think as a theorist one can flit from one idea to another. You have an idea and then you go into something else. But if you’re an experimenter developing new techniques, you may literally have to spend years and years on that. And they’re the people who I think we should admire most, because they stake a good fraction of their lives on something which may amount to nothing, but they hope it pays off and it’s wonderful when it does pay off.</p> <p><strong>What are the most important qualities in a young scientist?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: I think obviously curiosity and enthusiasm. I think pure intelligence is only one of the qualities that’s needed, it’s certainly not enough. <strong> </strong>I think the important advice I’d give to a young scientist is to pick your subject and pick your adviser. Because I think what you’ve got to do is find a subject where new things are happening — either new techniques or new observations. Because if you pick some sort of stagnant subject then you’ll find that you are either tying up the loose ends or you’re trying hard to solve a problem which your predecessors tried and failed to solve. And if you’re not clever then you won’t do it. Whereas the thing to do is to work on some topic where the old guys didn’t have your advantages.<strong> </strong>Where you’ve got more powerful computers, much better data, or new observations or something else, and therefore you can do something which they never had a chance to do, and build on their success, and then you don’t need to be any cleverer than they were to do something really new that is at least as important as what they did.</p> <p>So it’s a choice of topic and also the choice of where you work. Because certainly, one thing I find is that the interaction with your contemporaries and colleagues is very stimulating, and is important in a community where you’re plugged into what’s going on and can toss ideas about with other people. So science is a social activity largely. It’s not solitary.</p> <p>Also it’s a subject where you have to be receptive to new ideas all the time and new techniques. And that’s incidentally one reason why young scientists are often better than old scientists. It’s something which interests me about this that if you look at music, and think of the great composers. In many cases, their last works are thought to be their greatest. I guess Rossini is an exception, but that’s true of most of them. And the reason for that is that if you’re a composer, then you’re influenced by musical styles when you’re young, but thereafter it’s just internal development. Beethoven’s late quartets is a supreme example and all that, it’s internal development. Whereas in science, it’s a communal activity.</p> <p>If you are to do good work when you’re old, you’ve got to absorb lots of new techniques and new ideas, and that’s something which is harder for old people than for young people. And that’s why all those scientists often keep going on the plateau. There are few scientists who will claim that their last work was their best work. Whereas of course for many great composers, and indeed painters, that is the case.</p> <p><strong>Robots are already having a major impact on the economy. Where will this lead?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Certainly robots are becoming more sophisticated, and with artificial intelligence and deep learning they are able to think for themselves and make judgment for themselves, and that’s why more and more of the jobs which humans do can be done by robots. One place where there’s a huge advantage is in space of course, where we can send out robot geologists far more cheaply than human geologists.</p> <p>But here on Earth, I think it’s important to realize that the jobs that the robots will take over will be not only factory work, where they already do, but also many so called white-collar jobs, like routine legal work, medical diagnostics, radiology and things like that — maybe even surgery — and computer coding and things like that.</p> <p>So they’ll hollow out that part of the labor market. Indeed many sort of more manual jobs and craft jobs will be harder to automate. I think plumbing for instance will be very hard to automate. You can think about what a plumber has to do to go to your house, poke around and find where the plumbing is, et cetera. It would be very far in the future when a robot can do that. And also gardening. That’s another thing where humans will have the edge. And so I think when we consider the effect on the labor market, we should not be too pessimistic about the amount of work. Because we should realize we can redeploy people to do work which helps to make our lives better and where there aren’t enough people now. Most importantly, carers for young and old.</p> <p>Now it’s true that in Japan they have robots who can help to feed old people et cetera. But it’s demeaning to think an old person could be looked after entirely by a robot. If you’re a rich person, you’ll want to pay a real carer to look after you, and we ought to use the money earned by the robots to fund enough people in the caring professions to give every old person the kind of care which a rich person who has a choice would provide for him or herself.</p> <p>So I think that what we need to do is to ensure that the money that is earned by the robots — or by those who control them — is heavily taxed and redistributed to set up huge numbers of publicly funded, dignified secure jobs, for carers for young and old, teaching assistants, custodians, gardeners in public parks, and things like that to make our environment better and to make our lives better and to really help people. Especially the old and the sick. It’s a huge demand, and certainly, even in the more prosperous countries, it’s disgraceful how little of our resources are spent on providing that for the average old or disabled person, or for young children of disadvantaged backgrounds.</p> <p>So there’s huge demand, and we just need to use the money earned by the robots to pay jobs. And that is better than having a sort of a universal wage without requiring any work, because there is all this work to be done, and to raise the dignity and status of that sort of work which is of course really important for us human beings then I think that is the bright opportunity. But this will require a sort of socialist massive redistribution, which I hope will happen in the Scandinavian countries from whom, I think, we can learn far more on these than we can learn from the United States.</p> <p><strong>Do you have any concern about “runaway robots” as in some of our most beloved science fiction movies?</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: There’s certainly a concern about robots which develop a mind of their own. This is one of the major threats we need to guard against, and this is something which I’m glad to say that most of the people working on AI seem to be mindful of, and indeed I’ve been gratified that when we are in our university group have engaged with these issues we’ve had support with the researchers at Deep Mind and other places who are leading in this. So I think there is a concern and a feeling on the part of some that is not premature to think about trying to regulate the development of AI in a way that we all accept that we have to regulate developments in the biotech area, in order to ensure that the machines don’t develop a mind of their own, and certainly don’t develop any goals which are sort of hostile or orthogonal to human desires.</p> <p>So I think that’s important. But let’s hope we can manage that, and that’s a fairly long-term concern I think. Because, although we’ve got to realize how fast advanced intelligence is developing, the ability of robots to engage with the external world is still lagging rather behind. They — robots — are still rather clumsy moving the pieces on the real chessboard or tying your shoelaces and things like that, even though they can play chess better than a world champion.</p> <p>So there’s a long way before robots become really interactive. But then when that does happen, we’ve got to ensure that they have sort of guidelines so that they behave in an ethical way and have common sense. There are lots of examples of this, where people imagine a robot that will look after your kitchen and make your meals for you and if you’ve got no meat in the fridge it’ll put your cat in the oven. They’ve got to realize that’s not the right thing to do. And you also have to realize that you have to program that in, because there’s no other reason why the robot should know that. So people have to be aware that these machines have no common sense unless we program that in. That’s a big challenge if you want to actually let them loose in our everyday world.</p> <p>The other question of course that then emerges — which is a more philosophical question — is, “Will the machines have a sort of inner life if they get intelligent enough?” We may have machines which we can talk to, and they may seem rather human, and they respond like in some of the recent movies which have exemplified this. But are they just zombies? We don’t know, and that is, I think, very important for how we treat them. Because if they have an inner life and consciousness, then we’re going to have to start caring about their welfare, because we care about other humans fulfilling their potential. We even care about some animal species. We feel that they should be treated a way that fulfills their natural potential and that they aren’t bored and underutilized, and maybe we should have to think about our machines like that.</p> <p>And a big question is, “Will they always be machines that will be turned on and off because they’re just zombies?” or will they at some stage become intelligent entities to which we would have to pay some concern and regard as we would to other humans or animals. That’s a philosophical question. There’s a big debate about whether intelligence is an emergent property when things get sufficiently complex, or whether it’s something which is peculiar to the particular sort of wet hardware that we have inside our skulls.</p> <p><strong>Thank you, Lord Rees, for asking the big questions.</strong></p> <p>Martin Rees: Thank <em>you</em> very much for listening.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Lord Martin Rees Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>25 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3996316758748" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back.jpg" data-image-caption="2011: <i>From Here to Infinity: A Vision for the Future of Science</i> by Martin Rees. Recognized as an expert on the political and ethical impacts of science, Martin Rees demonstrates how we must solve the new challenges we face — from population growth to climate change — by devising strategies with a long-term, global perspective. In the process, he offers insights into the prospects for future discoveries while also explaining science’s intrinsic limits. Martin Rees reminds us that science should be a source of pleasure and wonder for specialists and nonspecialists alike." data-image-copyright="wp-2011-Rees, Martin - From Here to Infinity Cover (Front & Back)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back-271x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2011-Rees-Martin-From-Here-to-Infinity-Cover-Front-Back-543x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2.jpg" data-image-caption="1999: Awards Council member and theoretical physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson presenting the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award to Astronomer Royal Martin Rees at the Summit program in Washington, D.C." data-image-copyright="wp-2280-minus-man-Rees, Martin 1999 Summit 2" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2-380x272.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-minus-man-Rees-Martin-1999-Summit-2-760x543.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4901960784314" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover.jpg" data-image-caption="March 2003: <i>Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century — on Earth and Beyond</i> by Martin Rees. In this book, Rees discusses a range of existential risks confronting humanity, and controversially estimates that the probability of extinction before 2100 CE is around 50 percent, based on the possibility of malign or accidental release of destructive technology." data-image-copyright="wp-2003--Rees, Martin - Our Final Hour (Front & Back Cover)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover-255x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-Rees-Martin-Our-Final-Hour-Front-Back-Cover-510x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388.jpg" data-image-caption="October 2017: Academy Awards Council member Lord Martin Rees addresses Academy members at the iconic Cliveden House during the American Academy of Achievement’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2280-LondonSummit_1388-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4901960784314" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820.jpg" data-image-caption="From 1967 to 1972, Dr. Martin Rees was a staff member at the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, England. After studying at the University of Cambridge, he held postdoctoral 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. (Jonathan Blair/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Astronomer Martin Rees" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820-255x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1970s-GettyImages-524208820-510x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65657894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698.jpg" data-image-caption="May 9, 2003: Countryside campaigner Max Hastings with the Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where they launched a campaign to stop the growing light pollution in the UK. Campaigners say that light pollution — wasted man-made light that illuminates the night sky — obscures the view of the stars and may have an adverse effect on nocturnal creatures and migrating birds. In 2003, Rees published <i>Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning</i> and received the Albert Einstein Award from the World Cultural Council. " data-image-copyright="Hastings and Rees - Light Pollution" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-May-9-GettyImages-828684698-760x499.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656.jpg" data-image-caption="June 29, 2016: British cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Rees gives a lecture, “From Mars to the Multiverse: the Post-Human Future” during the Starmus Festival on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife. (Photo: Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="SPAIN-SCIENCE-FESTIVAL-REES" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2016-June-GettyImages-543624656-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.53421052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280.jpg" data-image-caption="July 20, 2015: Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking; cosmologist and astrophysicist Lord Martin Rees; Chairman Emeritus, SETI Institute, Frank Drake; Creative Director of the Interstellar Message, NASA Voyager Ann Druyan; and Professor of Astronomy, University of California, Geoff Marcy attend a press conference on the Breakthrough Life in the Universe Initiatives, hosted by Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking, at the Royal Society, London. (Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Yuri Milner And Stephen Hawking Host Press Conference On The Breakthrough Life In The Universe Initiatives" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280-380x203.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-July-20-GettyImages-481378280-760x406.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.63947368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770.jpg" data-image-caption="April 15, 2015: Queen Elizabeth II (front, center) with members of the Order of Merit. Front row, left to right: Professor Sir Michael Howard, Lord May of Oxford, Professor Sir Roger Penrose, Sir Michael Atiyah, the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II, Lord Foster of Thames Bank, Sir Tom Stoppard, Lord Jacob Rothschild, Baroness Boothroyd, and Sir David Attenborough. Back row, left to right: Dr. Martin West, the Honourable John Howard, the Right Honourable John Chretien, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Lord Eames, Lord Rees of Ludlow, Neil MacGregor, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Magdi Yacoub, and the Lord Fellowes at Windsor Castle in London, United Kingdom. (John Stillwell)" data-image-copyright="Order Of Merit Reception At Windsor Castle" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770-380x243.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2015-April-GettyImages-469796770-760x486.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0714.jpg" data-image-caption="2017: Council member and British cosmologist Lord Martin Rees presents the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan at the Academy of Achievement’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-LondonSummit_0714" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0714-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0714-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-LondonSummit_0153.jpg" data-image-caption="October 2017: Academy Awards Council member Lord Martin Rees addresses Academy members at the 52nd annual International Achievement Summit in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-2017 LondonSummit_0153" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-LondonSummit_0153-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-LondonSummit_0153-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.6344086021505" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences.jpg" data-image-caption="1989: <i>Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology</i> by Martin Rees and John Gribbin. In this intriguing exploration of our relationship with the universe, eminent physicist Martin Rees and acclaimed science writer John Gribbin search for the grand design of the universe —and the meaning of the so-called "coincidences" that allow life to exist on our planet. Rees and Gribbin present the advances in understanding the nature of dark matter (which controls the dynamics, structure, and eventual fate of the universe), and explore mini and massive black holes, brown dwarfs, and novel forms of matter such as quark nuggets. Along the way, they fascinate us with what scientists have already discovered about cosmic strings, superstrings, and the elusive TOE (theory of everything). They also speculate on the possibility of the existence of other universes and of other intelligent life." data-image-copyright="wp-1989 Cosmic Coincidences" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences-233x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1989-Cosmic-Coincidences-465x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4700193423598" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244.jpg" data-image-caption="March 5, 1992: Rt. Hon. Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Labour Party, with some of the leading figures from the fields of sport, education, business and law who contributed to the new party document “Your Land, My Land.” Back row, left to right: Anthony Scrivener QC, Ken Follett, Sir Martin Rees FRS, and Philip Hughes. Front row, left to right: Penelope Leach, Neil Kinnock, and Dounne Alexander-Moore. In 1992, Martin Rees became a Royal Society research professor, the president of the Royal Astronomical Society, and received a knighthood. (Getty)" data-image-copyright="Your land my land" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244-259x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1992-GettyImages-830419244-517x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.8" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0155.jpg" data-image-caption="Awards Council member and British cosmologist Lord Martin Rees presents the Golden Plate Award to Demis Hassabis, a British pioneer of artificial intelligence and founder and CEO of DeepMind, at a ceremony in London. October 2017: Academy Awards Council member Lord Martin Rees addresses Academy members at the 52nd annual International Achievement Summit in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-LondonSummit_0155" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0155-380x304.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0155-760x608.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.648590021692" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers.jpg" data-image-caption="1999: <i>Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe</i> by Martin Rees. In this book, Rees demonstrates how just six numbers, imprinted in the Big Bang, determine the essential features of the physical cosmos." data-image-copyright="wp-1999 Just Six Numbers" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers-230x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-1999-Just-Six-Numbers-461x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.8" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0698.jpg" data-image-caption="2017: Awards Council member and British cosmologist Lord Martin Rees presents the Golden Plate Award to Kazuo Ishiguro during the Academy of Achievement’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit at Claridge’s Hotel. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-LondonSummit_0698" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0698-380x304.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0698-760x608.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.6204690831557" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2001-Our-Cosmic-Habitat.jpg" data-image-caption="2001: <i>Our Cosmic Habitat</i> by Martin Rees" data-image-copyright="wp-2001 Our Cosmic Habitat" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2001-Our-Cosmic-Habitat-235x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2001-Our-Cosmic-Habitat-469x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4312617702448" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730.jpg" data-image-caption="January 8, 2012: Astronomer Royal Martin Rees gives a lecture, “From Planets to Universes,” at Stephen Hawking’s 70th birthday symposium lecture at the University of Cambridge. In his presentation, Martin Rees stated, “Back then, Stephen and I shared two bits of good luck. First, we were both in the research group at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in Cambridge led by physicist Dennis Sciama, a charismatic and enthusiastic man. Stephen was two years ahead of me. George Ellis had just finished his Ph.D., and Brandon Carter was an exact contemporary. We all had a second piece of good luck: the mid-1960s saw the birth of relativistic astrophysics. Astronomers discovered the first compelling evidence that our universe had expanded from the Big Bang. And they had discovered objects like neutron stars and quasars, where Einstein’s theory was crucial, not just a tiny correction to Newton’s. There were also mathematical insights, especially from Roger Penrose, whose work with Stephen and with George Ellis deepened our understanding of black holes and the Big Bang.” (Justin Tallis)" data-image-copyright="Astronomer Royal Martin Rees gives a lec" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730-266x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2012-January-GettyImages-136563730-531x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5541922290389" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future.jpg" data-image-caption="2018: <i>On the Future: Prospects for Humanity</i> by Martin Rees. Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various prospects for the future — good and bad — are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterized by short-term thinking, polarizing debates, alarmist rhetoric, and pessimism. In this book, Martin Rees argues that humanity’s future depends on our taking a very different approach to thinking about and planning for tomorrow. (Credit: Princeton University Press)" data-image-copyright="wp - 2018 On the Future" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future-245x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2018-On-the-Future-489x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2009-GettyImages-87948303.jpg" data-image-caption="May 24, 2009: Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, poses for a portrait at the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="The Guardian Hay Festival 2009 - Day 4" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2009-GettyImages-87948303-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2009-GettyImages-87948303-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-joshua-bell-martin-rees-LondonSummit_0109.jpg" data-image-caption="Awards Council members Lord Martin Rees and Joshua Bell at the 2017 International Achievement Summit in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-2017-joshua bell - martin rees - LondonSummit_0109" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-joshua-bell-martin-rees-LondonSummit_0109-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-joshua-bell-martin-rees-LondonSummit_0109-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.4" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/REES-AP-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg" data-image-caption="Lord Martin Rees" data-image-copyright="REES-AP-Feature-Image-2800x1120" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/REES-AP-Feature-Image-2800x1120-380x152.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/REES-AP-Feature-Image-2800x1120-760x304.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-August-GettyImages-583654746.jpg" data-image-caption="The British Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, pictured at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where he talked about his theories as an eminent cosmologist. The Book Festival is the world's biggest literary festival, with appearances by over 500 authors from across the world. (Photo by Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="UK - Edinburgh International Book Festival - Sir Martin Rees" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-August-GettyImages-583654746-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2003-August-GettyImages-583654746-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/WP-2017-LondonSummit_0152.jpg" data-image-caption="October 2017: Academy Awards Council member Lord Martin Rees addresses Academy members at the 52nd annual International Achievement Summit in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="WP - 2017 LondonSummit_0152" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/WP-2017-LondonSummit_0152-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/WP-2017-LondonSummit_0152-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884.jpg" data-image-caption="October 2017: Academy Awards Council member Lord Martin Rees with delegate Julius Weitzdörfer, Director of Studies in Law and a Charles and Katharine Darwin Research Fellow, at Darwin College, Cambridge, during the International Achievement Summit’s Banquet of the Golden Plate dinner held at Claridge’s Hotel in London. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-2017-with delegate - LondonSummit_0884" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-2017-with-delegate-LondonSummit_0884-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" 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text-brand-primary">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Pioneer of Artificial Intelligence</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2017</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever science-exploration analytical curious explore-nature shy-introverted resourceful " data-year-inducted="2007" data-achiever-name="Mather"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mat1-008a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mat1-008a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Nobel Prize in Physics</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2007</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever science-exploration science-exploration science-exploration racism-discrimination ambitious analytical curious " data-year-inducted="2017" data-achiever-name="Ramakrishnan"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ramakrishnan_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ramakrishnan_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Nobel Prize in Chemistry</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2017</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever science-exploration science-exploration athletic ambitious analytical curious explore-nature explore-the-world " data-year-inducted="2004" data-achiever-name="Ride"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ride-760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ride-760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">First American Woman in Space</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2004</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever science-exploration small-town-rural-upbringing analytical curious spiritual-religious explore-nature teach-others pioneer " data-year-inducted="1969" data-achiever-name="Townes"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/townes-013a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/townes-013a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Inventor of the Maser and Laser</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1969</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> </footer> </div> </div> </article> <div class="modal image-modal fade" id="imageModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="imageModal" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="close-container"> <div class="close icon-icon_x" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"></div> </div> <div class="modal-dialog" role="document"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-body"> <figure class="image-modal__container"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <img class="image-modal__image" src="/web/20180622225332im_/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/" alt=""/>  <figcaption class="p-t-2 container"> <div class="image-modal__caption sans-2 text-white"></div>  </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> </div> </div> <footer class="content-info main-footer bg-black"> <div class="container"> <div class="find-achiever" id="find-achiever-list"> <div class="form-group"> <input id="find-achiever-input" class="search js-focus" placeholder="Search for an achiever"/> <i class="icon-icon_chevron-down"></i> </div> <ul class="find-achiever-list list m-b-0 list-unstyled"> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hank-aaron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hank Aaron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kareem-abdul-jabbar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-albee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Albee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tenley-albright-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tenley Albright, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julie-andrews/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Julie Andrews</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Angelou</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-d-ballard-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert D. 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Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-trimble/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Trimble</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ted-turner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert Edward (Ted) Turner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-updike/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Updike</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gore Vidal</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Antonio Villaraigosa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lech-walesa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lech Walesa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/herschel-walker/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Herschel Walker</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-d-watson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James D. Watson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/andrew-weil-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Andrew Weil, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leslie-h-wexner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leslie H. Wexner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elie-wiesel/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Elie Wiesel</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-o-wilson-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oprah-winfrey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oprah Winfrey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tom-wolfe/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tom Wolfe</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-wooden/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Wooden</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bob-woodward/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bob Woodward</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shinya-yamanaka-m-d-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-chuck-yeager/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Chuck Yeager, USAF</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180622225332/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/andrew-young/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Andrew J. 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