Peter Coles

Peter Coles is a theoretical cosmologist and former head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex, a post he took up in February 2013. He has returned to work at Cardiff University, where he was formerly Deputy Head of School in Physics and Astronomy, to continue his research in astrophysics and cosmology in connection with the new Data Innovation Research Institute.
He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. He did his first degree at Magdalene College, Cambridge, in Natural Sciences, specialising in Theoretical Physics, graduating in 1985. He then studied for his doctorate at the University of Sussex and completed his thesis in 1988.
His primary research interest is in cosmology, specifically on theoretical models that try to account for the properties of the observable universe, including the cosmic microwave background. He is the author of a number of books on this and related subjects, including a textbook, "Cosmology: the origin and evolution of cosmic structure" (ISBN 0471489093, co-authored with Francesco Lucchin).
Coles was a professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at Cardiff University from 2007 to 2013. He previously worked at the University of Nottingham, Queen Mary, University of London, and the University of Sussex.
He left the University of Sussex in July 2016.
He currently resides in Cardiff. Among the places he has previously lived in are Brighton, Beeston in Nottinghamshire and Bethnal Green in London.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the Institute of Physics.
Peter Coles' blog, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Telescoper, is among the top five physics blogs listed by the Daily Telegraph.
He enjoys a wide range of music, especially classical and jazz and he listens to Radio 3 but he has a pathological hatred for the harpsichord