The Search for Life on Distant Planets

Dr Chris Crowe is a professional astronomer, teacher, elected fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and received degrees in theoretical physics and mathematics from the universities of Nottingham and Cambridge. He is currently the Head of Astronomy and Director of The Rayleigh Observatory in London where he teaches astronomy. He works extensively in public outreach at science festivals across the UK and hosts public observing evenings. Previously part of a research team at the University of Cambridge studying the relic radiation from the big bang, he worked in the same department as the late Stephen Hawking while studying for his doctorate. Recently he has been part of a team designing a new state-of-the-art observatory in the Caribbean. His main research interests are cosmology and the early Universe, and was part of the international Planck collaboration, a European Space Agency project which uncovered light from the earliest moments of the primordial Universe.