LORD MARTIN REES

Astronomer Royal, cosmologist and astrophysicist.

I was two years junior to Stephen and joined the research group in Cambridge when he was already doing his PhD. I got to know him at the time when he found out that he had this fatal disease and was already walking with a stick. At that time his life expectancy was low and many people didn’t think he would even finish his PhD. As he himself said, when he finished his PhD and got married his gloom lifted. He realised that he did have prospects.

He clearly had great mathematical ability, insight and determination. I think scientifically he will rate as one of the key people who has pushed forward our understanding of gravity in the last 50 years. In particular, for understanding black holes better. The paper he wrote in 1974, the so-called Black Hole Explosions paper, was important as the first quantitative attempt to link together Einstein’s General Relativity with the microworld of the quantum. That paper has implications that are still being debated today.

Another breakthrough came when his book became a huge bestseller – to his and everyone’s surprise. That catapulted him to international celebrity and made people interested in him as a personality, someone who despite having an imprisoned body was roaming the cosmos. This also gave him a further stimulus to engage in outreach events.

I think one can learn from Stephen that there are huge satisfactions from doing science. The subject that he chose is still immensely challenging and fascinating to a younger generation who will follow on and extend his work.