The Shaw Prize Lecture in Astronomy 2025

Professor John Richard BOND was born in 1950 in Toronto, Canada, and is currently a Professor of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and University Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada.  He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1973 and a PhD from the California Institute of Technology, USA, in 1979. Following postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and the University of Cambridge, UK, he was appointed Assistant Professor (1981–1985), then Associate Professor (1985–1987) at Stanford University, USA. In 1985, he moved to the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) at the University of Toronto, where he served as Professor until 2000 and has held the title of University Professor since 2000. He also served as Director of CITA for a decade (1996–2006). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Society of London, the American Physical Society, and is an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Professor George EFSTATHIOU was born in 1955 in London, UK and is currently Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at the University of Cambridge, UK.  He received his BA in Physics from the University of Oxford, UK, in 1976 and his PhD in Astronomy from Durham University, UK, in 1979. He held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, USA (1979–1980), and the University of Cambridge (1980–1988). He was Savilian Professor of Astrophysics (1988–1997) at Oxford, where he served as Head of Astrophysics until 1994. He returned to Cambridge in 1997 as Professor of Astrophysics, where he also served as Director of the Institute of Astronomy (2004–2008) and the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology (2008–2016). He received the 2022 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and the Royal Astronomical Society, UK.