Templeton prize winner

The 2011 Templeton Prize was awarded on Wednesday to leading astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees, a former president of Britain’s Royal Society. In announcing the £1.000.000 prize, a statement from the U.S. based Templeton Foundation said Rees’s work over many decades has “enlarged the boundaries of understanding about the physical processes that define the cosmos.” Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a member of the House of Lords and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, author of numerous books and articles exploring the origins and the future of the universe, Rees has focused his work on the implications of the ‘Big Bang’, the nature of black holes and the explosions from galaxy centres known as gamma ray bursters.
Raised in the Church of England, Rees says he has no religious beliefs, yet his insights have helped to shape some of the crucial theological and philosophical questions at the heart of our human existence. Philippa Hitchen spoke to him to find out more about his work and his views on the relationship between faith and science…

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