Brian May greatest guitarist of all time. He was ranked at No. 26 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". In 2012, he was ranked the 2nd greatest guitarist in a "Guitar World" magazine readers poll. May was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 for "services to the music industry and for charity work". May earned a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007, and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013. He was a "science team collaborator" with NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission. He is also
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London member of Transport for London (TfL). The current Head of the Civil & Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), Andrew J. Whittle is also a graduate of the Department. The strong bonds of the Department with the outside academic and professional world can be seen through the various close collaborations with professional bodies and association. Examples are the prestigious British Geotechnical Association's Rankine Lecture which is hosted every March at Imperial College, the organisation of the Centre for Transport Studies (a collaboration between Imperial College and University College London), several seminars organised by the Institution of Structural Engineers