Queen guitarist Brian May – he of the flowing locks and soaring harmonies – has been named chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. At first glance it may appear to be a publicity stunt or a glorified honorary title, but May’s actually got some pretty decent academic credentials for a rock icon:

Brian studied Astrophysics at Imperial College, London and gained his BSc before progressing to a PhD. He put his academic career on hold to concentrate on his musical ambitions and more than 30 years later, in October 2007, Brian completed his PhD thesis A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud and was awarded his doctorate.

May’s blog (or “Soapbox” as he calls it) makes for interesting reading, as he writes about astrophysics, environmental issues and music, along with other topics. It’s nice to know that rock music has its science geeks, even if they are fairly rare.

Though unconfirmed, the rumored working title for his doctoral thesis was “Another One Bites The (Zodiacal) Dust.”

Thank you, thank you … I’ll be here all week.