Peter Shaver

Peter Shaver is Canadian, obtained a PhD in astrophysics at the University of Sydney in Australia, and spent most of his career as a senior scientist at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), based in Munich. He has authored or co-authored over 300 scientific papers, edited six books on astronomy and astrophysics, and written the books Cosmic Heritage: Evolution from the Big Bang to Conscious Life, The Rise of Science: From Prehistory to the Far Future, and Worldviews: Reality, Certainty and Other Worlds. A member of various international organisations and committees, he served as President of the International Astronomical Union's Division on Galaxies and the Universe, and was instrumental in the establishment of Europe's participation in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project. Now retired, he and his Australian wife split their time between Sydney, Toronto and Europe, and he devotes himself to broadening his horizons in science.