Sir Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College, the University of Cambridge, as well as a professor of cosmology and astrophysics, will deliver three Messenger Lectures at Cornell this month. They are free and open to the public and will be held in the Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall.

The lectures are: Wednesday, April 13, "Einstein's Legacy as Scientist and Icon," 8 p.m.; Thursday, April 14, "Cosmological Challenges: From 'Dark Age' to Multiverse," 4:30 p.m.; Friday, April 15, "Science and Survival in the 21st Century," 4:30 p.m.

The author of about 500 research papers, Rees is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading astronomers, cosmologists and theoretical astrophysicists. He has been at the forefront in understanding the structure and evolution of the universe by contributing many of the foundational ideas about galaxy formation, particularly in regard to the critical role of gas and dissipation. In explaining how the universe emerged from the cosmic "dark ages," he examined how the first generations of stars, galaxies and quasars formed and then ionized much of the universe.

He was among the first to make predictions about polarization and other detailed features of the cosmic microwave background. And he was in the vanguard of theorists on cosmic gamma ray bursts that led to observations establishing that they are at cosmological distances. For this work, he shared the Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in 2000.

Rees also has been very influential on the scientific and philosophical ways humans think about the universe, such as why the universe has its particular characteristics and how humans as sentient beings fit into this universe. His ideas have been tremendously influential in setting the research agenda. 

He is the recipient of many awards, including the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1987 and the Henry Norris Russell Lecturer of the AAS in 2004. In 2005 he shared the Crafoord Prize of the Swedish Royal Academy, which is reserved for fields not eligible for Nobel Prizes and is given only once every few years. He also is a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

His books include Gravity's Fatal Attraction, New Perspectives in Astrophysical Astronomy, Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others, Just Six Numbers, Our Cosmic Habitat, and Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in this Century -- on Earth and Beyond.

The Messenger Lectures were established in 1924 by a gift from Hiram Messenger, who graduated from Cornell in 1880, with the intent of raising the moral standards of political, business and social life.