Rees, Farmelo Honored by Institute of Physics

Martin Rees, a Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study and a former Member (1969–70, 1973, 1975, 1982, 1992–93, 1996) in the School of Natural Sciences, has been awarded the Isaac Newton Medal of the Institute of Physics. The award recognizes Rees’s "paradigm-shifting" contributions to relativistic astrophysics and cosmology, as well as his mentorship of scientists, his leadership in the scientific community, and the impact of his nontechnical writings on public understanding of science. Rees is Professor Emeritus of Cosmology and Astrophysics and Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Previous recipients of the medal include Edward Witten, Charles Simonyi Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute. Graham Farmelo, a frequent Director’s Visitor at the Institute since 2005, was awarded the Kelvin Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for outstanding work in communicating science to a broad audience. Farmelo is a By-Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, and author of The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom (Basic Books, 2009).