Brian May’s sublime guitar playing was the soundtrack to most of my childhood (thanks, Dad), but his talents transcend the musical sphere. He’s also a photographer and perhaps most surprisingly an astrophysicist. It’s for this very reason that I found myself listening to him speak on a panel alongside British astronaut Helen Sharman – the first British astronaut to visit the Mir space station – about the upcoming fifth edition of Starmus, an innovation and arts festival he’s involved with, due to be held in Bern (Switzerland) in 2019.
Best known as Queen’s lead guitarist, May has toured the world alongside the seminal rock band’s legendary lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon – but he’s also collaborated with NASA and co-founded an asteroid awareness campaign. His lifelong interest in science and tech is also the reason why he set up the London Stereoscopic Company.
May studied physics and mathematics at London’s prestigious Imperial College, graduating with a BSc degree and ARCs in physics. From 1970 to 1974, he embarked on a PHD degree at the same institution – studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. Despite temporarily abandoning his doctoral studies when Queen began to enjoy international success in the mid-1970s, May re-registered for his PhD at Imperial and submitted his thesis in the Summer of 2007. ...