Brian Cox: biography

Professor Brian Cox is a British physicist, mostly well known for presenting the BBC documentary series Wonders of the Solar System and its sequel, Wonders of the Universe.

Beginnings

Born in Oldham, a suburb of Greater Manchester in 1968, Cox attended Hulme Grammar School before studying physics at Manchester University. Cox has, on several occasions, explained that his love of physics is strongly associated with Carl Segan's masterpiece, Cosmos among others. During his time at university, Cox performed with the pop group D:Ream, who had a number one hit with 'Things Can Only Get Better', most famously used as the theme tune to New Labours election campaign in 1997. During this period as a pop star, Cox received a first class honours degree in physics. In 1998, Cox was awarded his PhD in high energy particle physics.

Career

Having graduated with such distinction from Manchester University, Cox has led an equally distinctive career. As a result of his PhD thesis, Cox currently works on the ATLAS experiment, a project which requires Cox to spend time at CERN in Switzerland using the Large Hadron Collider. As of 2005, Cox was appointed as a professor of particle physics at Manchester University, from where he graduated only eight years earlier.
Cox has been instrumental in bringing physics to a wider audience, and has appeared in many television and radio shows approaching various subjects within physics, as well as being science advisor to Danny Boyle when directing his film Sunshine. Cox is a regular presenter of the Radio 4 program The Infinite Monkey Cage, and has presented two series of the hit BBC physics documentaries 'Wonders of the Solar System' and 'Wonders of the Universe', both of which were well received by critics and audiences alike.
Cox has also authored and co-authored several books on the subject of physics.

Achievements

Academically, Cox has been well received, namely for his work in bringing science to a more general audience through his media outlets, as well as becoming a spokes person for the promotion and support of sciences in educational institutions. In 2006, Cox was elected as a Research Fellow for the Royal Society and in 2010, he won the Institute of Physics Kelvin Prize. Cox has also won numerous awards for his television presenting roles, while 'Wonders of the Solar System' was named best documentary of 2010. Cox was also appointed O.B.E in 2010 during the Queen’s birthday celebrations.