Will They, Will They Rock Us? (1 Viewer)

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[1] 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,[120][121]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)[1]was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced.[122][123][124][21][125] 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,[2] Ken Reay[2] and in the latter stages by Michael Rowan-Robinson.[1] He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.[citation needed]

In October 2007, May was appointed a Visiting Researcher in Imperial College and continues his interest in astronomy and involvement with the Imperial Astrophysics Group.

He is co-author, with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, of Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe[126][127] and The Cosmic Tourist.[128]

Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named in his honour on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Sir Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of 1998 BM30).[97][129]

In 2014, May co-founded Asteroid Day with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy and German filmmaker Grigorij Richters. Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet.[130]

May appeared on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Chris Lintott, Jon Culshaw, Prof. Brian Cox, and the Astronomer Royal Martin Rees who on departing the panel, told Brian May, who was joining it, "I don't know a scientist who looks as much like Isaac Newton as you do".[131] May was also a guest on the first episode of the third series of the BBC's Stargazing Live, on 8 January 2013.

On 17 November 2007, May was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University,[132] and installed in 2008.[133] He held the post until 2013.[131]

During the New Horizons Pluto flyby NASA press conference held on 17 July 2015 at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Brian May was introduced as a science team collaborator. He told the panel "You have inspired the world."[134][135]