Brian Cox Profile

From the musical beginnings of D:Ream to the cinematic Wonders series, Brian Cox never ceases to impress.

Brian Cox

Brian Cox was born on the 3rd March 1968 and is famous for being from the north of England, with his soft northern accent. Brian is a professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester and also works at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Wonders of the Solar System Clip

University

Although only attaining a D grade Mathematics A-level, citing a lack of interest and band commitments for the low grade, Brian studied physics at the Victoria University of Manchester (now part of the University of Manchester) and obtained a first class Physics B.Sc. and MPhil degrees. Carl Sagan is often cited as a key factor in inspiring him to undertake physics.

Following his undergraduate and masters success, Brian was awarded a PhD in high energy particle physics at Victoria University of Manchester.

Music

Brian had some success in the 1990s as the keyboard player for D:Ream, a British pop band with several hits, including the number one, "Things Can Only Get Better".

Brian Cox

Television

The Professor Brian Cox that we all know and love, first started his science presenting career with a number of BBC Horizon series, including Einstein's Equation of Life and Death and What on Earth is Wrong with Gravity. He would then go on to present the ground-breaking five-part series Wonders of the Solar System in 2010.

Following the success of Wonders of the Solar System, a new four-part series, Wonders of the Universe was commissioned for March 2011. The awe-inspiring Wonders of the Universe would serve as the launchpad to blast Brian amongst the stars of science documentaries, and one of the most heralded scientists in the world.

We can trace our ancestry back hundreds of thousands of years to the dawn of humankind. But in reality, our story extends far, further back in time. Our story starts with the beginning of the universe. It began 13.7 billion years ago, and today, it's filled with over a hundred billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars.

Brian has co-presented two series of Stargazing Live in 2011 and 2012, a live astronomy series with the comedian Dara Ó Briain, the Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with comedian Robin Ince, and the new Wonders series, Wonders of Life broadcast recently.