Life Fellow, St Edmund's College
Fellow Royal Astronomical Society; Fellow Geological Society of London; Fellow Royal Historical Society. Member International Astronomical Union. Member Royal Society of Literature.
Research interests: History of the astronomical sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries. One hundred years of relativistic cosmology: the impact of Einstein and his followers. The role of conflict and controversy before cosmology became precision science. The pioneers who rewrote the rules of the cosmology game: Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, Georges Lemaître, George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold and Vera Rubin. The history of deep carbon science: discovering the geophysics, geochemistry, and geobiology of the element carbon in Earth's interior.
Email: sam11@cam.ac.uk
Published books
Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton, Vera Rubin, a Life, Harvard University Press 2021.
Simon Mitton, From Crust to Core, a Chronicle of Deep Carbon Science, Cambridge University Press 2021.
Rodney Holder and Simon Mitton (editors), Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy, Springer 2013.
Jeremiah Ostriker and Simon Mitton, Heart of Darkness: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Expanding Universe. Princeton University Press, 2012.
Simon Mitton, Taking the Back off the Watch, Thomas Gold Personal Memoir, Springer 2012.
Simon Mitton, Fred Hoyle: a Life in Science, Cambridge University Press 2011.
Simon Mitton, Conflict in the Cosmos: Fred Hoyle's Life in Science, Joseph Henry Press, Washington DC 2005.
Simon Mitton and Peter Harman, (editors), Cambridge Scientific Minds, Cambridge University Press 2002.
Simon Mitton, Daytime Star, Faber 1981.
Simon Mitton and Cyril Hazard, (editors). Active Galactic Nuclei, Cambridge University Press 1979.
Simon Mitton, The Crab Nebula, Faber 1979.
Simon Mitton, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy (editor), Jonathan Cape 1977.
Peter Eggleton, Simon Mitton and John Whelan, (editors). Structure and Evolution of Close Binary Systems, Kluwer 1976.
Simon Mitton, Exploring the Galaxies, Faber 1976.
Public lectures and outreach
Geological Society, London 4 December 2019: Carbon's Fundamental Role in Earth, the history of deep carbon science 1600–2009
Royal Astronomical Society 11 October 2016: Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy
Local Astronomical Societies 2015 and 2016: The Fireworks Universe of Georges Lemaître
Oxford Literary Festival May 2014: Origin of structure in the universe
Royal Astronomical Society, 14 January 2013: How geometry has guided cosmology, from the Babylonians to Einstein and beyond
Hay Literary Festival 2012 and 2013: Origin of structure in the universe
Cunard, Queen Mary 2, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, Guest Lecturer, popular science and history of astronomy
Fred. Olsen, Balmoral, March 2014, Guest Lecturer, history of astronomy, maritime history, and cosmology
