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Happy 74th birthday, astrophysicist Brian May.
Sun Jul 19, 2020: Happy 73rd birthday, astrophysicist Brian May.
If astrophysics doesn't pan out, he has another career he can fall back on.
Thu Jul 19, 2018: Happy 71st birthday, astrophysicist Brian May.
Previously at DU:
Sat Jul 18, 2015: Happy Birthday to my favorite astrophysicist!
Brian May
Brian Harold May, CBE (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, astrophysicist, and photographer. He is best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, and in 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the band's members.
{snip}
May was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for "services to the music industry and for charity work". May was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007 and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013. He was a "science team collaborator" with NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission. He is also a co-founder of the awareness campaign, Asteroid Day. Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after him. May is also an animal rights activist, campaigning against the hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers in the UK.
{snip}
Early life
Brian Harold May was born in Hampton, Middlesex on 19 July 1947, the only child of Ruth and Harold May, who worked as a draughtsman at the Ministry of Aviation. His mother was Scottish, while his father was English. May attended the local Hampton Grammar School, then a voluntary aided school. During this time, he formed his first band, named 1984 after George Orwell's novel of the same name, with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell.
At Hampton Grammar School, he attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in Physics, Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics. He studied Mathematics and Physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1968 with honours. In 2007, May was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971 and completed in 2007.
{snip}
Scientific career
May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. From 1970 to 1974, he studied for a PhD degree at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen started to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but co-authored two peer reviewed research papers, which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.
In October 2006, May re-registered for his PhD at Imperial College and submitted his thesis in August 2007 (one year earlier than he estimated it would take to complete). As well as writing up the previous work he had done, May had to review the work on zodiacal dust undertaken during the intervening 33 years, which included the discovery of the zodiacal dust bands by NASA's IRAS satellite. After a viva voce, the revised thesis (titled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud) was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced. He was able to submit his thesis only because of the minimal amount of research on the topic during the intervening years and has described the subject as one that became "trendy" again in the 2000s. His PhD investigated radial velocity using absorption spectroscopy and doppler spectroscopy of zodiacal light using a Fabry–Pérot interferometer based at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. His research was initially supervised by Jim Ring, Ken Reay and in the latter stages by Michael Rowan-Robinson. He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.
{snip}
Discography
With Queen
Main article: Queen discography
{snip}
Brian Harold May, CBE (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, astrophysicist, and photographer. He is best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, and in 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the band's members.
{snip}
May was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for "services to the music industry and for charity work". May was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007 and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013. He was a "science team collaborator" with NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission. He is also a co-founder of the awareness campaign, Asteroid Day. Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after him. May is also an animal rights activist, campaigning against the hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers in the UK.
{snip}
Early life
Brian Harold May was born in Hampton, Middlesex on 19 July 1947, the only child of Ruth and Harold May, who worked as a draughtsman at the Ministry of Aviation. His mother was Scottish, while his father was English. May attended the local Hampton Grammar School, then a voluntary aided school. During this time, he formed his first band, named 1984 after George Orwell's novel of the same name, with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell.
At Hampton Grammar School, he attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in Physics, Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics. He studied Mathematics and Physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1968 with honours. In 2007, May was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971 and completed in 2007.
{snip}
Scientific career
May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. From 1970 to 1974, he studied for a PhD degree at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen started to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but co-authored two peer reviewed research papers, which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.
In October 2006, May re-registered for his PhD at Imperial College and submitted his thesis in August 2007 (one year earlier than he estimated it would take to complete). As well as writing up the previous work he had done, May had to review the work on zodiacal dust undertaken during the intervening 33 years, which included the discovery of the zodiacal dust bands by NASA's IRAS satellite. After a viva voce, the revised thesis (titled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud) was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced. He was able to submit his thesis only because of the minimal amount of research on the topic during the intervening years and has described the subject as one that became "trendy" again in the 2000s. His PhD investigated radial velocity using absorption spectroscopy and doppler spectroscopy of zodiacal light using a Fabry–Pérot interferometer based at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. His research was initially supervised by Jim Ring, Ken Reay and in the latter stages by Michael Rowan-Robinson. He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.
{snip}
Discography
With Queen
Main article: Queen discography
{snip}
So, show us some of this astrophysics stuff, okay?
No one would allow me to leave this out:
A few years older, a few added pounds:
A few more. "unblock" brought up "Killer Queen." That's too good to leave out.
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
