Prof Mike Cruise is a member of international teams searching for gravitational waves using ground based and space based facilities. He has published over 100 research papers and a text book on The Principles of Space Instrument Design.
Mike is President of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Mike obtained his BSc and PhD from University College London where he worked at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory on instrumentation for X-Ray Astronomy. In 1985 he was appointed Deputy Director. In 1986 he left UCL to become leader of the Astrophysics Group at the Rutherford Appelton Laboratory, subsequently becoming the Associate Director for Space. In 1995 he was appointed to a chair at the University of Birmingham, followed by five years as Head of School and five years as Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer.
Mike has contributed significantly to a number of Space missions including Skylarks 921,922, 821,822,1104 Ariel V, Ariel VI, Hipparcos, AMPTE, ROSAT, Spektrum Roentgen Gamma, SOHO, Cluster, XMM-Newton, STEREO, LEGRI, SMEI. LISA Pathfinder and LISA, a space based gravitational wave observatory.
Mike has pioneered the development of gravitational wave detectors for very high frequencies- above 1 MHz and has a long term interest in the interaction of gravitation and electromagnetism.