Astronomer Royal shares £290,000 (€430,000) science prize

Astronomer Royal Martin Rees was tonight awarded a £290,000 (€430,000) science prize with two Americans.

Professor Rees, professor of cosmology and astrophysics and Master of Trinity College Cambridge, received the Crafoord Prize in Sweden with Americans James Gunn and James Peebles for their work in explaining how the universe was created.

It was presented to them by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf in a ceremony at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, which selects thewinners each year.

The academy said the three astronomers were honoured “for contributions towards understanding the large-scale structure of the universe,” including research on the formation of galaxies, microwave background radiation and the function of so-called dark matter.

Gunn and Peebles are professors at Princeton University in New Jersey. The academy announced the winners in January.

The award is named for Holger Crafoord, the Swede who designed the first artificial kidney. It has been given annually since 1982 for scientific research in areas not covered by the Nobel Prizes, including mathematics, astronomy and biosciences.