Brian May Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008. In October 2007, May was appointed a Visiting Researcher in Imperial College and continues his interest in astronomy and involvement with the Imperial Astrophysics Group. He is co-author, with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, of "Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe" and "The Cosmic Tourist". May appeared on the 700th episode of "The Sky at Night" hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Chris Lintott, Jon Culshaw, Prof. Brian Cox, and the Astronomer Royal Martin Rees who on departing the panel, told Brian May, who was joining it, "I don't
Imperial College London 3*), giving an overall GPA of 3.36. In rankings produced by "Times Higher Education" based upon the REF results Imperial was ranked 2nd overall. Imperial actively encourages its staff to commercialise their research and as a result has given rise to a large number of spin-out companies based on academic research. Imperial has a dedicated technology transfer company, Imperial Innovations. Imperial College London has a long term partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In January 2018, the mathematics department of Imperial and the French National Center for Scientific Research launched a joint research laboratory of mathematics – UMI Abraham