Simon Mitton was elected to a Life Fellowship at St Edmund’s in 2006, following 40 years of continuous service as a financial officer of the College. Today his area of academic research is the history and philosophy of science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Simon read physics at the University of Oxford (Trinity College). Then he headed to Churchill College for his doctorate in physics at the Cavendish Laboratory in Martin Ryle’s radio astronomy group. From 1972–1978 he was a staff member of the Institute of Astronomy, initially as a postdoc with Fred Hoyle and then as the departmental administrator 1974–1978. Cambridge University Press hired him initially as their senior editor for physical sciences. In 1984 he was appointed to the executive board of directors at the Press, with global responsibility for its STEM academic publishing programme. His major achievements in that context included winning the publishing contract for a succession of Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Geneva; overseeing a major expansion of the publishing programme in earth and space sciences; and persuading his friend and colleague Stephen Hawking to remove two dozen equations from the typescript of A Brief History of Science.

Following his retirement from the Press in 2001, Simon started a third career with his research programme at St Edmund’s College. His current focus is the history of astronomy and cosmology in the twentieth century, with an emphasis on biographical presentations of the lives in science of major pioneers. He has published many papers and books on key pioneers; Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, George Gamow, and Georges Lemaître who resided at St Edmund’s House (1923–1924) while working alongside Sir Arthur Eddington on applying Einstein’s general theory of relativity to the entire universe.

Throughout his long career at the University of Cambridge, Simon Mitton has worked tirelessly as a vigorous outreach promoter of astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. He has worked in several media: as consultant and columnist for New Scientist (1970s); running educational courses for the public at Madingley Hall and evening classes sponsored by the University throughout the east of England (1970s, 1980s); as an astronomy lecturer on cruise ships, jointly with Dr Jacqueline Mitton, (2006-2017); giving presentations to university astronomical societies; script writer (with Jacqueline Mitton) for a 26-part tv series Destination Space; Editor-in-Chief for The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy (1977, Jonathan Cape London; ten foreign language co-editions); and co-author Young Oxford Book of Astronomy (1995). Simon and Jacqueline Mitton are strong supporters of St Edmund’s College Chapel, its Deans (ten so far …), and its vibrant Chapel community. He enjoys popping into the College any time for congenial conversation with students and senior members alike on astronomy, the universe, and the history of astronomy.