John Peacock

John Peacock studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where he remained for a PhD in Radio Astronomy (1981). He is Professor of Cosmology at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Head of Astronomy from 2007 to 2013. He has written extensively on statistical methods for studying cosmological density fields, including co-inventing the widely used Halo Model.  He was UK Chairman of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (1999-2005), a project that transformed our detailed knowledge of cosmological large scale structure. He Chaired the 2006 ESA-ESO review on Fundamental Cosmology, which played a major part in creating Euclid, ESA's satellite observatory.  He is the author of "Cosmological Physics", a highly successful postgraduate textbook.  Major awards for his research include election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (2007); the Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2014); the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2023).