Person: Davies (4), Paul
Paul Davies is an English theoretical physicist and astrobiologist who has popularised issues such as the origin of life and extraterrestrial intelligence.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Margaret Thatcher became the Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959 (she became Prime Minister of Britain twenty years later), and she presented Paul with a copy of Norton's Star Atlas for an outstanding performance in his O level examinations at the 1962 Speech Day at the school.
- From Woodhouse Grammar School, Paul went to University College, London, where he was awarded a B.Sc. with 1st Class Honours in 1967.
- In 1974 Davies published a major monograph The physics of time asymmetry.
- Much of Davies's work during his time at King's College appears in his 1982 monograph Quantum fields in curved space written with Nicholas D Birrell who wrote his thesis The Application of Quantum Field Theory to Cosmology and Astrophysics (1979) while being advised by Davies.
- In 1980 Davies was named Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
- In 1990 Davies went to Australia when appointed as Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Adelaide.
- Among Davies's better-known media productions were a series of 45 minute BBC Radio 3 science documentaries.
- Davies has received many honours in addition to those mentioned in the above quotation.
- Other honours received by Davies include: the ABC Eureka Prize (1991); the University of New South Wales Press Eureka Prize for the book 'The Mind of God' (1992); the Advance Australia Award for outstanding contributions to science (1993); and the Templeton Prize received from the John Templeton Foundation (1995).
- Certainly the Templeton Prize was a very major award but Davies continued to receive a host of others including: the Asteroid 1992 OG was renamed (6870) Pauldavies (1999); he received the Kelvin Medal from the UK Institute of Physics (2001); he received the Michael Faraday Prize from the Royal Society (2002); he received the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award (2003); he received the Trotter Prize from Texas A & M University, USA (2004); and received an honorary D.Sc. from Macquarie University (2006).
Born 22 April 1946, London, England.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Astronomy, Origin England
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
