Fred Hoyle

Sir Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) was an astronomer, cosmologist, and science fiction author. He was best known for championing the (now more or less defunct) Steady State theory of cosmology and, ironically, for coining the name of a rival theory, the "Big Bang", now the most widely accepted.

Hoyle was born on June 24, 1915 in Bingley, Yorkshire, England, and attended Bingley Grammar School. He was the son of Ben and Mabel (Pickard) Hoyle. He read mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and then went on to teach the subject at the university. Later he moved to the United States of America to become a professor of astronomy and philosophy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

He coined the phrase "big bang" as a way of ridiculing the alternative theory (which, however, is now widely accepted).