Fred Hoyle

Sir Fred Hoyle was an English astronomer, born in 1915 near Bingley in Yorkshire, who with Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge and William Alfred Fowler formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis in the influential B2FH paper. He read mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, worked on radar research for the Admiralty in World War II, and spent most of his working life at St John College, Cambridge, where he was founding director of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy. He held controversial views, rejecting the Big Bang theory in favour of a steady-state model and promoting panspermia as the origin of life on Earth. He also wrote science fiction novels, short stories and radio plays.