Under the "Passionate, Lifelong Learner" Category
"After more than 30 years which he spent as a member of one of the world's most successful bands, Queen guitarist Brian May has finally finished his PhD thesis which he began as a student in the 1970s, The Times reported on Thursday.
May, 59, earned a degree in physics at Imperial College London but after years of studying interplanetary dust, he abandoned work towards his doctorate when Queen took off.
His interest in the subject was reignited when he co-authored "Bang! The Complete History of the Universe", which tells the story of the universe from the big bang through its subsequent evolution, and was released last year.
"For the last nine months, I've done nothing except slave over my PhD, which is now written up, thank God," May reportedly told students at a ceremony at Exeter University in southwest Britain when he received an honorary doctorate.
"But there are times when you really want to give up. There are times when you go, 'Why on earth did I take this on?'"
May worked on the PhD between 1971 and 1974, and kept all his hand-written notes on the subject through the years, finally discovering them in his loft recently."
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