He established Caltech as one of the major theory centres in the world, and he has now done the same at KIPAC. Among his many honours, including the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and Heineman Prize of the American Astronomical Society, he is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, and heads the next decadal review defining the future of astrophysics in the US, the “Blandford Report”. His research covers almost all of astrophysics, in particular black holes and compact objects, cosmic ray physics and high energy astrophysics, cosmology and gravitational lensing.