Brian May George Orwell's novel of the same name, with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell. At Hampton Grammar School, he attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in Physics, Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics. He studied Mathematics and Physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1968 with honours. In 2007, May was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971 and completed in 2007. May formed the band Smile in 1968. The group included Tim Staffell as the lead singer and bassist, and later, drummer Roger
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