Ray Jayawardhana is a professor and the Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. Originally from Sri Lanka, he is a graduate of Yale and Harvard. He is the co-author of more than one hundred papers in scientific journals. His discoveries have made headlines worldwide, including in The Times, The Economist, Sydney Morning Herald, and BBC News, and have led to numerous accolades such as the Steacie Prize, the McLean Award, the Rutherford Medal, and the Radcliffe Felllowship. He is an award-winning writer whose articles have appeared in the New Scientist, Times Higher Education, and others. He is the author of Strange New Worlds.