The Life Scientific: Hiranya Peiris

The Life Scientific: Hiranya Peiris

From Discovery by BBC World Service

May 25, 2026 · 27 min

About this episode

Hiranya Peiris discusses her role in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time and her contributions to modern cosmology.

Hiranya Peiris is playing a starring role in a movie that promises to tell perhaps the greatest story of all time. However, it’s a movie with a difference – there’s no director and no script. The Legacy Survey of Space and Time is one of the most ambitious projects in the world of astronomy, with a mission to create a decade-long time-lapse movie of the visible universe, to answer fundamental questions about its origin, evolution and, ultimately, its fate. Hiranya is Professor of Astrophysics 1909, the prestigious Chair at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University. Over her career she’s been one of the pioneers of a revolution in astronomy, bridging fundamental physics with the observational data coming back from space, to establish the first evidence-based standard model for the origin, evolution and fate of the universe. The endeavour has transformed the field from the ‘wild west’ of physics to the modern era of precision cosmology. Ironically, it was another movie, of sorts, Carl Sagan’s documentary series ‘Cosmos’, that first sparked Hiranya’s interest in the universe as a young girl. Always keen to inspire women to follow in her footsteps and choose careers in…

People in this episode

Guest: Hiranya Peiris

Topics covered

  • astronomy
  • cosmology
  • women in science
  • universe
  • space exploration

Keywords

  • Hiranya Peiris
  • Legacy Survey of Space and Time
  • cosmology
  • universe
  • astronomy
  • women in science
  • Carl Sagan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University

Books & works: Cosmos

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