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Brian May

Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal rights activist and astrophysicist. He achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen, which he co-founded with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor. His guitar work and songwriting contributions helped Queen become one of the most successful acts in music history.

May previously performed with Taylor in the progressive rock band Smile, which he had joined while he was at university. After Mercury joined to form Queen in 1970, bass guitarist John Deacon completed the line-up in 1971. They became one of the biggest rock bands in the world with the success of the album A Night at the Opera and its single "Bohemian Rhapsody". From the mid-1970s until 1986, Queen played at some of the biggest venues in the world, including an acclaimed performance at Live Aid in 1985. As a member of Queen, May became regarded as a virtuoso musician and was identified with a distinctive sound created through his layered guitar work, often using a home-built electric guitar called the Red Special. May wrote numerous hits for Queen, including "We Will Rock You", "I Want It All", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Flash", "Hammer to Fall", "Save Me", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "The Show Must Go On".

Following the death of Mercury in 1991, aside from the 1992 tribute concert, the release of Made in Heaven (1995) and the 1997 tribute single to Mercury, "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)" (written by May), Queen were put on hiatus for several years but were eventually reconvened by May and Taylor for further performances featuring other vocalists. In 2005, a Planet Rock poll saw May voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time. He was ranked at No. 33 on Rolling Stone 2023 list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2012, he was further ranked the second-greatest guitarist in a Guitar World magazine readers poll. In 2001, May was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Queen and, in 2018, the band received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

May was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for services to the music industry and for charity work. May earned a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007, and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013. He was a "science team collaborator" with NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission. He is also a co-founder of the awareness campaign Asteroid Day. Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after him. In 2023, May contributed to NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, the agency's first successful collection and earth delivery of samples directly from an asteroid (the asteroid Bennu). May is also an animal rights activist, campaigning against fox hunting and the culling of badgers in the UK. May was knighted by King Charles III in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to music and charity.

Early life
Brian Harold May was born in 19 July 1947 at Gloucester House Nursing Home in Hampton Hill, near Twickenham, Middlesex. He is only child of Ruth Irving (née Fletcher) and Harold May, who worked as a draughtsman at the Ministry of Aviation. His mother, who was Scottish, married his father, who was English, at Moulin in Perthshire, Scotland in 1946. May attended the local Hanworth Road state primary school, and at the age of 11 won a scholarship to Hampton Grammar School, then a voluntary aided school. During this time, he formed his first band, named 1984 after George Orwell's novel of the same name, with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell.

At Hampton Grammar School, May attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in physics, mathematics, and applied mathematics. He studied mathematics and physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc degree in physics in 1968 with honours. Following his graduation, May received a personal invitation from Sir Bernard Lovell to work at the Jodrell Bank Observatory while continuing to prepare his doctorate. He declined, choosing instead to remain at Imperial College to avoid breaking from Smile, the London-based band he was in at the time.

In 2007, May was awarded a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971 and completed in 2007.

1968–1970: Smile
May formed the band Smile in 1968. The group included Tim Staffell as the lead singer and bassist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen. The band lasted for only two years, from 1968 to 1970, as Staffell departed in 1970, leaving the band with a catalogue of nine songs. Smile would reunite for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's band The Cross were headliners, and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter". May also performed several other songs that night.

1970–1995: Queen
In Queen's three-part vocal harmonies, May was generally the lower-range backing vocalist. On some of his songs, he sings the lead vocals, most notably the first verse of "Who Wants to Live Forever", the final verse of "Mother Love", the middle eight on "I Want It All" and "Flash's Theme", and full lead vocals on "Some Day One Day", "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)", "'39", "Good Company", "Long Away", "All Dead, All Dead", "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" and "Sail Away Sweet Sister".

May frequently wrote songs for the band and has composed many hits such as "We Will Rock You", "Tie Your Mother Down", "I Want It All", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "The Show Must Go On" as well as "Hammer to Fall", "Flash", "Now I'm Here", "Brighton Rock", "The Prophet's Song", "Las Palabras de Amor", "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)" and "Save Me".

After the Live Aid concert in 1985, Mercury rang his band members and proposed writing a song together. The result was "One Vision", which was basically May on music (the Magic Years documentary shows how he came up with the opening section and the basic guitar riff); the lyrics were co-written by the four band members.

For their 1989 release album, The Miracle, the band had decided that all of the tracks would be credited to the entire band, no matter who had been the main writer. Interviews and musical analyses tend to help identify the input of each member on each track. May composed "I Want It All" for that album, as well as "Scandal" (based on his problems with the British press). For the rest of the album, he did not contribute much creatively. However, he helped in building the basis of "Party" and "Was It All Worth It" (both being predominantly Mercury's pieces) and created the "Chinese Torture" guitar riff.

Queen's subsequent album was Innuendo. May's contributions increased, although more in terms of arranging than actual writing in most cases. He did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo on the title track. He added vocal harmonies to "I'm Going Slightly Mad" and composed the solo for "These Are the Days of Our Lives", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together.

Two songs May had composed for his first solo album, "Headlong" and "I Can't Live With You", eventually ended up on the Queen project. His other composition was "The Show Must Go On", which he coordinated and was the primary composer. In recent years, he has supervised the remastering of Queen albums and various DVD and greatest hits releases. In 2004, he announced that he and drummer Roger Taylor were going on tour for the first time in 18 years as "Queen", along with Free/Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers. Billed as "Queen + Paul Rodgers", the band played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Europe, Aruba, Japan, and North America and released a new album with Rodgers in 2008, entitled The Cosmos Rocks. This album was supported by a major tour.

Paul Rodgers left the band in May 2009. It was not until 2011 that another vocalist, Adam Lambert, was recruited. Queen + Adam Lambert toured Europe in 2012 and toured the world tour over 2014 and 2015. Their most recent outing was the 2016 Festival Tour. They also played the Big Ben New Year concert on New Year's Eve 2014 and New Year's Day 2015.

1983–1999: Side projects and solo works
During 1983, several members of Queen explored side projects. On 21 and 22 April in Los Angeles, May was in a studio with Eddie Van Halen, with no intention of recording anything. The result of the two-day session was a mini album titled Star Fleet Project, which was not originally going to be released. In 1986, May contributed to former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's album Feedback 86, playing guitar on the track "Cassandra" and providing guitar and vocals for "Slot Machine", which May co-wrote. Although produced in 1986, the album was not released commercially until 2000. Another song co-written by May and Hackett during this period, "Don't Fall Away from Me", was eventually recorded by Hackett in 1992 for release on his The Unauthorised Biography compilation album. Also in 1986, May worked with actress Anita Dobson on her first album, most noted for the song "Anyone Can Fall in Love", which added lyrics to the EastEnders theme tune and reached number four on the UK Singles Chart in August 1986. May and Dobson married in 2000. In 1988, May contributed guitar solos to the song "When Death Calls" on Black Sabbath's 14th album Headless Cross, and the Living in a Box track "Blow The House Down" on the album Gatecrashing. Both albums were released in 1989.

In the aftermath of the November 1991 death of Mercury, May chose to deal with his grief by committing himself as fully as possible to work, first by finishing his solo album, Back to the Light, and then touring worldwide to promote it. He frequently remarked in press interviews that this was the only form of self-prescribed therapy he could think of. According to Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, "It was undoubtedly an enormous and terrible blow to lose someone he was so close to. Personally, I know it ripped the heart out of Brian, but having said that, he was in great spirits after the album was finished." Back to the Light featured the single "Too Much Love Will Kill You", on which he collaborated as a songwriter with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers. A version with Freddie Mercury's vocals was later released on the Queen album Made in Heaven and won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996.

In late 1992, the Brian May Band was officially formed. May had loosely formed an earlier version of the band for 19 October 1991, when May took part in the Guitar Legends guitar festival in Seville, Spain. The line-up for his performance was May on vocals and lead guitar, Cozy Powell on drums and percussion, Mike Moran and Rick Wakeman on keyboards, and Maggie Ryder, Miriam Stockley and Chris Thompson on backing vocals. The original line-up was May on vocals and lead guitar, Powell on drums and percussion, Michael Casswell on guitar, Neil Murray on bass, and Ryder, Stockley and Thompson on backing vocals. This version of the band was together only during the South American support tour (supporting The B-52's and Joe Cocker) on five dates.

May later made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled. May brought guitarist Jamie Moses on board to replace Mike Caswell. The backing vocalists, Ryder, Stockley and Thompson, were replaced by Catherine Porter and Shelley Preston. On 23 February 1993, this new line-up of The Brian May Band began its world tour in the US, supporting Guns N' Roses and headlining a few dates. The tour included dates in North America, Europe (support act: Valentine) and Japan. On 15 June 1993, the band did a show in London that would end up as The Brian May Band's only release as a collective, namely Live at the Brixton Academy. At the show, May would sing a few lines of "Love of My Life", and then, as Mercury used to, let the audience join in. After the tour ended on 18 December 1993, May returned to the studio with fellow surviving Queen band members Roger Taylor and John Deacon to work on tracks that became Made in Heaven, the final Queen studio album. The band took Mercury's solo album demos and last recordings, which he managed to perform in the studio after the album Innuendo was finished, and completed them with their additions both musically and vocally. After Mercury's death, work on the album by Deacon and May began originally in 1992 but was left until a later date due to other commitments.

In 1995, May began working on a new solo album of covers tentatively titled Heroes, in addition to working on various film and television projects and other collaborations. May subsequently changed the approach from covers to focus on those collaborations and new material. The songs included Another World, and featured mainly Spike Edney, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses. On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on the M4 motorway near Bristol, England. This incident caused an unexpected disruption to the upcoming tour for the Brian May Band, which now needed a new drummer on short notice. Steve Ferrone was brought on to help May finish recording the drum tracks and join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour. Following the early promotional tour, Eric Singer replaced him on the 1998 world tour.

The 1998 tour saw the brief introduction of a 'support act' known as T. E. Conway. Conway (Brian May in a wig and colourful suit playing the part of a teddy boy crooner) would play several 1950s rock and roll standards before May's 'arrival'. A bonus T. E. Conway EP entitled Retro Rock Special was attached to some pressings of the Another World album. The Conway character was retired at the end of the tour. In May 1999, May recorded lead guitars for the Guns N' Roses song "Catcher in the Rye" on Chinese Democracy, but his performance was removed from the album by the time it was released in 2008.

2000–2010
From his last solo release in 1998, May has been performing as a solo artist, as part of an ensemble, and infrequently as Queen with Roger Taylor. On 22 October 2000, he made a guest appearance at the Motörhead 25th Anniversary show at Brixton Academy along with Eddie Clarke (former Motörhead guitarist) for the encore song "Overkill". As part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations on 3 June 2002, May performed a guitar solo of "God Save the Queen" from the roof of Buckingham Palace, with the performance appearing on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition of A Night at the Opera. May played guitar on the song "Someone to Die For" on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack in 2004.

On the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire "for services to the music industry and for charity work". In the same year he played the guitar on the song Il mare... for Italian singer Zucchero Fornaciari, on his album Zu & Co., and he took part in the concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London held in May 2004, with the other guests of the Italian bluesman. May was a celebrity guest at the Genesis reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium in 2007. May and Genesis frontman Phil Collins worked together on two previous occasions, at The Prince's Trust Rock Gala in 1988 and the Party at the Palace in 2002, when Collins had played drums with Queen. In 2011 he contributed to a feature about Collins for FHM, praising him as "a great guy and an amazing drummer".

During the late 1960s, May became an enthusiast of stereoscope photographs, as a child, and first encountered the work of Thomas Richard Williams. In 2003, May announced a search to identify the actual location of the Scenes in Our Village images. In 2004 May reported that he had identified the location as the village of Hinton Waldrist in Oxfordshire. Along with Elena Vidal, May released a historical book in 2009 entitled A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village. The book is an annotated collection of stereoscopic photographs taken by the Victorian era photographer T. R. Williams. It included a focusing stereoscope. May used a 3D camera to document the history of Queen.

May worked extensively with stage actress and singer Kerry Ellis after he cast her in the musical We Will Rock You. He produced and arranged her debut studio album Anthems (2010), a follow-up to her extended play Wicked in Rock (2008), as well as appearing with Ellis at many public performances—playing guitar alongside her. He also contributed a guitar solo to Meat Loaf's Hang Cool, Teddy Bear album in exchange for the use of drummer John Miceli.

On 20 May 2009, May and Queen bandmate Roger Taylor performed "We Are the Champions" live on the season finale of American Idol with winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet. In November 2009, May appeared with Taylor on The X Factor, with Queen mentoring the contestants, then later performed "Bohemian Rhapsody". In April 2010, May founded the "Save Me" 2010 project to work against any proposed repeal of the British fox-hunting ban, and to promote animal rights in Britain. In February 2011, it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011.

2004–2009: Queen + Paul Rodgers

At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers, the founder and former lead singer of Free and Bad Company. Brian May's website also stated that Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen as Queen + Paul Rodgers, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury. The retired John Deacon would not be participating.

Between 2005 and 2006 Queen and Paul Rodgers embarked on a world tour, the first leg being Europe and the second, Japan and the US in 2006. On 25 May 2006, Queen received the inaugural VH1 Rock Honors at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, and May and Taylor were joined on stage with the Foo Fighters to perform a selection of Queen songs. On 15 August 2006, May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album in October, to be recorded at a "secret location". The album, titled The Cosmos Rocks, was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008. Following the album's release, the band embarked on a tour through Europe and parts of the US, opening on Kharkiv's freedom square in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans. The show in Ukraine was later released on DVD. Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up on 12 May 2009. Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working together again.

2011–present
On 18 April 2011, Lady Gaga confirmed that May would play guitar on her track "You and I" from her latest album Born This Way, released on 23 May 2011. May joined Gaga on stage during the performance of "You and I" at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. May performed with Tangerine Dream at the Starmus Festival on Tenerife in June 2011, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first spaceflight.

May performed "We Will Rock You" and "Welcome to the Black Parade" with the rock band My Chemical Romance at the Reading Festival on 26 August 2011. On 10 October, May made an appearance to celebrate the reunion of rock band The Darkness at an "intimate" 100 Club show with support from Dark Stares. A long-time fan of the group, May performed three songs onstage with The Darkness, including Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down", at the Hammersmith Apollo on their subsequent "comeback" tour.

At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received the Global Icon Award, which Katy Perry presented to Brian May. Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together. Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, on 11 and 12 July 2012. Both shows sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on open sale. A third London date was added for 14 July. On 30 June, Queen + Lambert performed in Kyiv, Ukraine at a joint concert with Elton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation. Queen also performed with Lambert on 3 July 2012 at Moscow's Olympic Stadium, and on 7 July 2012 at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland.

In January 2012, May featured on N-Dubz frontman Dappy's solo single "Rockstar", providing "rumbling guitar riffs which culminate in an electrifying solo". The pair also collaborated on a performance of "We Will Rock You" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

Queen performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on 12 August 2012. May performed part of the "Brighton Rock" solo before being joined by Taylor and solo artist Jessie J for a performance of "We Will Rock You". On 16 September 2012, May appeared at the Sunflower Jam charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, performing alongside bassist John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin), drummer Ian Paice (of Deep Purple), and vocalists Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden) and Alice Cooper.

In a 2013 West End run of Spamalot (the musical adaptation of Monty Python's 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail), May was among the celebrities who played the part of voicing God for a week in aid of charity. In 2015, May played guitar on the end credits song "One Voice" from the film A Dog Named Gucci. The song also features the talents of: Norah Jones, Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs, Lydia Loveless, Neko Case, and Kathryn Calder. It was produced by Dean Falcone, who wrote the film's score. "One Voice" was released on Record Store Day, 16 April 2016, with profits from the sale of the single going to benefit animal charities.

Welsh electronic musician Jayce Lewis collaborated with May in 2018 on the song We Are One, taken from Lewis' 2018 album release Million. Incorporating a repurposed Finger tapping/Hammering riff from May's solo track Cyborg from his album; Another World (Brian May album), both artists re-recorded May's guitar at a slower speed, and included it to the new song composition.

On 29 March 2019, May inducted Def Leppard into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He worked with contemporary metal band Five Finger Death Punch and blues artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd to re-record a new version of "Blue on Black" in support of The Gary Sinise Foundation in April 2019. The artists came together to merge country and mainstream rock to re-create the classic song originally co-written by Shepherd. At the end of the month he also performed songs including "All the Young Dudes" with Def Leppard's Joe Elliott at a Mott the Hoople show at the Shepherd's Bush Empire.

In 2024, May contributed guitar to a re-release of Mark Knopfler's "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

2011–present: Queen + Adam Lambert
Not long after performing with American Idol finalists Kris Allen and Adam Lambert during the programme's season finale in 2009, May and Taylor began contemplating the future of Queen after the group's amicable split with frontman Paul Rodgers. At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, Queen was presented with that year's Global Icon Award, accepted by May. As part of the broadcast, Queen performed a short set with Lambert, receiving an overwhelmingly welcoming response. Speculation regarding collaboration with Lambert soon arose, with the three formally announcing a short summer tour of Europe in 2012, including three dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as well as shows in Ukraine, Russia and Poland.

The collaboration was revived in 2013, when the three performed together at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on 20 September. Five months later, May, Taylor and Lambert announced a 19-date summer tour of North America on Good Morning America. Because of ticket demand, five dates were soon added. In May 2014, shows in Australia and New Zealand were announced, along with festival performances in South Korea and Japan. The tour was extended to the UK and greater Europe in early 2015. The group performed together in South America in September 2015, including Queen's first performance at the Rock in Rio Festival since 1985.

In 2016, the group embarked across Europe and Asia on the Queen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour. This included closing the Isle of Wight Festival in England on 12 June where they performed "Who Wants to Live Forever" as a tribute to the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier that day. On 12 September they performed at the Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel for the first time in front of 58,000 people. In September 2018 the group had a residency in the MGM Park Theater in Las Vegas. Though the collaboration remains active, there are currently no plans to record a studio album, though the three are willing to do so in the future. On 31 March 2020, Queen + Adam Lambert confirmed that their touring dates were postponed until 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

On 4 June 2022, Queen + Adam Lambert opened the Platinum Party at the Palace outside Buckingham Palace to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Performing a three-song set, May appeared in front of the Victoria Memorial monument as they opened with "We Will Rock You" which had been introduced in a comedy segment where the Queen and Paddington Bear tapped their tea cups to the beat of the song.

Guitar style

May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist by many publications and musicians. He has featured in various music polls of the greatest rock guitarists, and in 2011 was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". In January 2007, the readers of Guitar World voted May's guitar solos on "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Brighton Rock" into the "top 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time" (No.20 and No.41 respectively). Former Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar stated, "I thought Queen were really innovative and made some great sounding records... I like the rockin' stuff. I think Brian May has one of the great guitar tones on the planet, and I really, really love his guitar work." Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist of the Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying "I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I wanted to be able to do that. Whenever I went to guitar lessons, I was always asking to learn Queen stuff."

American guitar virtuoso Steve Vai has spoken highly of May's work, saying:"In that whole genre, in that whole period—he's one of the most unique contributors. He doesn't get credit. Because what he does is so rich and so specific, and so deep, it fits so well in Queen music, you just feel it as part of that music. But when you break it down and when you look at it from a guitar player's point of view, it's unique, and nobody to this date could do what he does and make it sound like that. He is an iconic player. His tone, his choice of melody notes, he doesn't just do solos. His solos are melodies, and they're perfectly in place."

Most of May's electric guitar work live and in the studio is done on the Red Special, which he built with his father, an electronics engineer, when he was sixteen years old. It was built with wood from an 18th-century fireplace, and was composed of household items such as mother-of-pearl buttons, shelf edging, and motorbike valve springs. While May and his father were building the Red Special, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, the Red Special was so successful that May did not need to build another guitar. These plans were eventually given to guitar luthier Andrew Guyton in around 2004–05. Guyton made some slight modifications and the guitar was built. It was named "The Spade" as the body's shape resembled the form shown on playing cards. The guitar also came to be known as "The Guitar That Time Forgot".

May commented on the Red Special:

"I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin's Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm's made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob from the ends of a knitting needle, and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike."

In addition to using his home-made guitar he prefers to use coins (especially a sixpence from the farewell proof set of 1970), instead of a more traditional plastic plectrum, because he feels their rigidity gives him more control in playing. He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.

A meticulous arranger, he focuses on multi-part harmonies, often more contrapuntal than parallel—a relative rarity for rock guitar. Examples are found in Queen's albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, where he arranged a jazz band for guitar mini-orchestra ("Good Company"), a vocal canon ("The Prophet's Song") and guitar and vocal counterpoints ("Teo Torriatte").

May explored a wide variety of styles in guitar, including: sweep picking ("Was It All Worth It" "Chinese Torture"); tremolo ("Brighton Rock", "Stone Cold Crazy", "Death on Two Legs", "Sweet Lady", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Get Down Make Love", "Dragon Attack"); tapping ("Bijou", "It's Late", "Resurrection", "Cyborg", "Rain Must Fall", "Business", "China Belle", "I Was Born To Love You"); slide guitar ("Drowse", "Tie Your Mother Down"); Hendrix sounding licks ("Liar", "Brighton Rock"); tape-delay ("Brighton Rock", "White Man"); and melodic sequences ("Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "These Are the Days of Our Lives"). Some of his solos and orchestral parts were composed by Freddie Mercury, who then asked May to bring them to life ("Bicycle Race", "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", "Killer Queen", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy"). May also performed notable acoustic works, including the finger-picked solo of "White Queen" (from Queen II), "Love of My Life" and the skiffle-influenced "'39" (both from A Night at the Opera).

Aided by the uniqueness of the Red Special, May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song "Procession"; in "Get Down, Make Love" he was able to create various sound effects with his guitar; in "Good Company" he used his guitar to mimic a trombone, a piccolo and several other instruments for the song's Dixieland jazz band feel. Queen used a "No synthesizers were used on this album" sleeve note on their early albums to make this clear to the listeners. May also used his guitar to create the chime effect in "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Influences
May's early influences included Cliff Richard and the Shadows, who he says were "the most metallic thing(s) out at the time". Many years later he gained his opportunity to play on separate occasions with the Shadows' lead guitarist Hank Marvin. He has collaborated with Richard on a re-recording of 1958 hit "Move It" on Richard's duets album Two's Company, which was released on 6 November 2006.

May always stated that the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Who and Jimi Hendrix were the greatest influences on him. On the Queen for an Hour interview on BBC Radio 1 in 1989, May listed Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton as his guitar heroes. In a 1991 interview for Guitar World magazine, May referred to the Who as "my inspiration", and on seeing Led Zeppelin stated, "We used to look at those guys and think, 'That's the way it should be done.'" May told Guitarist in 2004, "I don't think anyone has epitomised riff writing better than Jimmy Page – he's one of the great brains of rock music".

May also cites Rory Gallagher as a major influence, saying "He was a magician. He was one of the very few people of that time who could make his guitar do anything, it seemed. I remember looking at that battered Stratocaster and thinking, 'How does that (sound) come out of there?'" According to May, "... it was Rory that gave me my sound, and that's the sound I still have." May was also influenced by Steve Hackett, guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis, in particular his harmony guitar solo at the end of the band's epic 1971 song "The Musical Box". Hackett said of May, "Equally, his energetic approach to guitar inspired me."

Guitars
From 1975 onwards, May had some replicas made of the Red Special, some of which were also used for live and recording purposes, others being mainly spares. The most famous replicas were made by John Birch in 1975 (May smashed it during a concert in the US in 1982), Greco BM90 (featured in the promo video of "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" in 1977), Guild (back-up from 1984 to 1993), Fryers (1997–1998, used both live and in the studio) and Guyton (back-up from 2003 to present). On stage, May used to carry at least one backup guitar (in case he broke a string). He occasionally would use others for specific songs or parts, such as alternate tunings. Currently, May owns a company that makes guitars whose design is modelled after the original Red Special guitar.

 * July 1973 – May 1974: Fender Stratocaster CBS era (thought to be 1972)
 * October 1974 – May 1975: Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, and the Stratocaster from the previous tour.
 * November 1975 – May 1976: Same two guitars as before, plus a natural finish John Birch replica of the Red Special.
 * September 1976: Same three as before, plus a Martin D-18 acoustic for "'39".
 * January 1977 – August 1979: Just the Birch replica plus an Ovation Pacemaker 12-string acoustic on some numbers ("'39", "Love of My Life", "Dreamer's Ball").
 * November 1979 – June 1982: Birch replica (back-up), Fender Telecaster ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love" 2nd verse, middle-eight and solo), Ovation (acoustic numbers).
 * July – November 1982: Added a Gibson Flying V as second back-up. On 9 August 1982, May smashed the Birch guitar, so the Flying V became the only spare.
 * August – October 1984: The Flying V became a second back-up again as his main spare was the Guild replica. He also used Roger Taylor's Gibson Chet-Atkins Classical Electric.
 * July 1985 – August 1986: Gibson Flying V no longer used. The rest remained the same. May used a Gibson Chet-Atkins guitar on the 1986 Magic Tour.
 * In 2012, he received a double-neck replica of the Red Special, with the second neck having 12-strings. He used this guitar at a few gigs with Adam Lambert now being able to play the 12-string part from the studio version of "Under Pressure" live.

He currently has a Guild 12-string to replace his Ovation Pacemaker. Some of the non-RS electric guitars he used in the studio included:
 * Burns Double Six on "Long Away" (1976) and "Under Pressure" (1981).
 * Fender Telecaster on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (1979). May used it for the video (but not the recordings) of "Back Chat" (1982).
 * Gibson Firebird on "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up" (album versions only, not on stage).
 * Ibanez JS on "Nothing But Blue" (1991).
 * Parker Fly on "Mother Love" (1993–1995).

For acoustic, he favoured Ovation, Martin, Tōkai Hummingbird, Godin and Guild. On a couple of videos, he also used some different electric guitars: a Stratocaster copy on "Play the Game" (1980) and a Washburn RR2V on "Princes of the Universe" (1986).

In 1984, Guild released the first official Red Special replica for mass production and made some prototypes specifically for May. However, the solid-body construction (the original RS has hollow cavities in the body) and the pick-ups (DiMarzio) that were not a replica of the Burns TriSonic did not make May happy. The production of the guitars stopped after just 300 guitars. In 1993, Guild made a second replica of the RS, made in just 1000 copies, of which May has some and used as a back-up. At the moment, he uses the two guitars made by Greg Fryer—the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998—as back-up. They are almost identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).

Amplifiers and effects

May has used Vox AC30 amplifiers almost exclusively since a meeting with his long-time hero Rory Gallagher at a gig in London during the late 1960s/early 1970s. In the mid-1970s he used six of them, with an Echoplex delay (with extended delay time) plugged into a separate amplifier, and a second Echoplex plugged into yet another amp; he used a homemade booster, his only effects pedal, which was on all the time. His choice is the model AC30TBX, the top-boost version with Blue Alnico speakers, and he runs the amp at full volume on the Normal channel. May also customises his amps by removing the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal). This alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6–7 dB. He always used a treble booster which, along with the AC30 and his custom 'Deacy Amp' transistor amp, built by Queen bass player John Deacon, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones. He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up to A Day at the Races. Effects designer Pete Cornish built for him the TB-83 (32 dB of gain) that was used for all the remaining Queen albums. He switched in 2000 to the Fryer's booster, which actually gives less boost than the TB-83.

When performing live, May uses banks of Vox AC30 amplifiers, keeping some amps with only guitar and others with all effects such as delay, flanger and chorus. He has a rack of 14 AC30s, which are grouped as Normal, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2. On his pedal board, May has a custom switch unit made by Cornish and subsequently modified by Fryer that allows him to choose which amps are active. He uses a BOSS pedal from the '70s, the Chorus Ensemble CE-1, which can be heard in "In The Lap of The Gods" (Live at Wembley '86) or "Hammer to Fall" (slow version played live with P. Rodgers). Next in the chain, he uses a Foxx Foot Phaser ("We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions", "Keep Yourself Alive", etc.), and two delay machines to play his trademark solo in "Brighton Rock".

Piano and other instruments
As a child, May was trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band's primary pianist, May would step in occasionally (such as on "Save Me" and "Flash"). He mostly used Freddie Mercury's 1972 Steinway piano. From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ ("Wedding March", "Let Me Live") and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records). In the studio, May used Yamaha DX7 synths for the opening sequence of "One Vision" and the backgrounds of "Who Wants to Live Forever" (also on stage), "Scandal" and "The Show Must Go On".

The first instrument May learned to play was the banjolele. He used a "genuine George Formby Ukulele-Banjo" in "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and "Good Company". Occasionally, May would also record on other string instruments such as harp (one chord per take, then copied and pasted by the engineer to make it sound like a continuous performance) and bass (on some demos and many songs in his solo career, and the Queen + Paul Rodgers album). May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. He used a Yamaha plastic piano in "Teo Torriatte" and a toy mini koto in "The Prophet's Song".

Vocals
May is also an accomplished singer. From Queen's Queen II to The Game, May contributed lead vocals to at least one song per album. May co-composed a mini-opera with Lee Holdridge, Il Colosso, for Steve Barron's 1996 film, The Adventures of Pinocchio. May performed the opera with Jerry Hadley, Sissel Kyrkjebo, and Just William. On-screen, it was performed entirely by puppets.

Scientific career

May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. From 1970 to 1974, he studied for a PhD degree at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen began to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but nonetheless co-authored two peer-reviewed research papers, which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.

In October 2006, May re-registered for his doctorate at Imperial College, and he submitted his thesis in August 2007 (one year earlier than he estimated it would take to complete). As well as writing up the previous work he had done, May had to review the work on zodiacal dust undertaken during the intervening 33 years, which included the discovery of the zodiacal dust bands by NASA's IRAS satellite. After a viva voce, the revised thesis (titled "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud") was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced. He was able to submit his thesis only because of the minimal amount of research on the topic during the intervening years and has described the subject as one that became in-demand again in the 2000s. In his doctoral research, he investigated radial velocity using absorption spectroscopy and doppler spectroscopy of zodiacal light using a Fabry–Pérot interferometer based at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. His research was initially supervised by Jim Ring, Ken Reay and in the latter stages by Michael Rowan-Robinson. He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.

In October 2007, May was appointed a visiting researcher in Imperial College and he continues his interest in astronomy and involvement with the Imperial Astrophysics Group. He is co-author, with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, of ''Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe and The Cosmic Tourist''. May appeared on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Chris Lintott, Jon Culshaw, Professor Brian Cox, and the Astronomer Royal Martin Rees who, on departing the panel, told Brian May, who was joining it, "I don't know a scientist who looks as much like Isaac Newton as you do." May was also a guest on the first episode of the third series of the BBC's Stargazing Live, on 8 January 2013.

On 17 November 2007, May was appointed chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, and he was installed in 2008 having also been awarded an honorary fellowship from the university for his contribution to astronomy and services to the public understanding of science. He held the post until 2013. Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after him on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of ).

In 2014, May co-founded Asteroid Day with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy and German filmmaker Grigorij Richters. Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet. May was a guest at the 2016 Starmus Festival where he also performed on stage with composer Hans Zimmer. The theme was Beyond The Horizon: A Tribute To Stephen Hawking.

During the New Horizons Pluto flyby NASA press conference held on 17 July 2015 at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, May was introduced as a science team collaborator. He told the panel "You have inspired the world." From 31 December 2018 until 1 January 2019, May was in attendance at the watch party for the New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper belt object, 486958 Arrokoth, and performed an updated version of his "New Horizons" celebratory song. As part of May's role as a collaborator with NASA's science team on the New Horizons mission, he worked on the first stereoanaglyph based on images of (486958) Arrokoth that were captured by the spacecraft.

In 2019, he was awarded the Lawrence J. Burpee Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for outstanding contributions to the advancement of geography.

In 2020, he participated in the team that contributed the stereography images of numerical simulations of asteroid disruptions and re-accumulations in a publication in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications by Michel, P. et al. (2020) presenting a scenario of formation of the asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, visited by NASA OSIRIS-REx and JAXA Hayabusa2 probes, respectively. He was awarded the JAXA Hayabusa2 Honor Award for his contribution by making stereoscopic images of Ryugu.

In 2021, he contributed the stereography images of the structural stability of double asteroid (65803) Didymos, the target of the NASA DART and ESA Hera missions, in a publication in the peer-reviewed journal Icarus by DART and Hera team members. He is also on the advisory board of the NEO-MAPP project (Near-Earth-Object Modelling and Payloads for Protection), funded by the European Union.

In 2022, May was awarded a Doctorate of Science honoris causa by Professor Brad Gibson in the EA Milne Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Hull. Unable to attend in person, he joined the graduation ceremony via video link. At the Starmus IV festival in Yerevan, Armenia in September 2022, May was awarded the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.

In December 2022 May was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2023 New Year Honours, the first list of King Charles III's reign. In March 2023, May was officially knighted by the King.

Personal life
From 1976 to 1988, May was married to Christine Mullen. They had three children. They separated in 1988. May met actress Anita Dobson in 1986. She inspired him to write the 1989 hit "I Want It All". They married on 18 November 2000.

He has said in interviews that he had depression in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the point of contemplating suicide, for reasons having to do with his troubled first marriage, his perceived failure as a husband and father, and the deaths of Mercury and his father Harold.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List of 2019, May is worth £160 million. He has homes in London and Windlesham, Surrey. May's father Harold was a long-time heavy cigarette smoker. As a result, May dislikes smoking, to the point where he was already prohibiting smoking indoors at his concerts before many countries imposed smoking bans. He is an active animal rights advocate, and he was appointed a vice-president of an animal welfare charity, the RSPCA, in September 2012. A vegan since taking part in the 2020 Veganuary challenge, May has stated that meat eating is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. May describes himself as "not belonging to an organized religion, but feels there is a god of some kind which we know very little about".

May is a long-term champion of woodland as a haven and "corridor" for wildlife—both in Surrey, where he has a house, and elsewhere. In 2012, he bought land threatened by building development at Bere Regis, Dorset, and, in 2013 and with the enthusiastic support of local villagers, initiated a project to create an area of woodland, now called May's Wood (or "the Brian May Wood"). The wood consists of 157 acres, formerly under the plough, planted by May's team of co-workers with 100,000 trees. May's Wood is said to be flourishing.

In 2013, a new species of the genus Heteragrion (Odonata: Zygoptera) from Brazil was named Heteragrion brianmayi—one of four Heteragrion flatwing damselflies named after the bandmates, paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Queen's founding.

May experienced a small heart attack in May 2020. It required the insertion of three stents into three blocked arteries. May said he had been "very near death".

Activism

May has formed a group to promote animal welfare. Though a Conservative Party voter most of his life, he has stated that their policies on fox hunting and the culling of badgers meant he did not vote for them in the 2010 UK general election. His animal welfare–focused organisation, Save Me (named after the May-written Queen song), campaigns for the protection of all animals against unnecessary, cruel and degrading treatment, with a particular emphasis on preventing hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers. The group's primary concern is to ensure that the Hunting Act 2004 and other laws protecting animals are retained in situ.

In an interview in September 2010 with Stephen Sackur for the BBC's HARDtalk program, May said that he would rather be remembered for his animal rights work than for his music or scientific work. May is a staunch supporter of the RSPCA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the League Against Cruel Sports, PETA UK and the Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue. In March 2012, May contributed the foreword to a target paper published by the think tank the Bow Group, urging the government to reconsider its plans to cull thousands of badgers to control bovine TB, stating that the findings of Labour's major badger culling trials, several years earlier, show that culling does not work. The paper was authored by Graham Godwin-Pearson with contributions by leading tuberculosis scientists, including Lord Krebs.

In 2013, May joined French guitar player Jean-Pierre Danel for a charity Danel launched for the benefit of animal rights in France. The guitarists signed guitars and art photos together, and were joined by Hank Marvin.

In May 2013, May teamed up with actor Brian Blessed and Flash cartoonist Jonti "Weebl" Picking, as well as animal rights groups including the RSPCA, to form Team Badger, a "coalition of organisations that have teamed up to fight the planned cull of badgers". With Weebl and Blessed, May recorded a single, "Save the Badger Badger Badger"—a mashup of Weebl's viral 2003 Flash cartoon meme, "Badger Badger Badger", and Queen's "Flash", featuring vocals by Blessed. On 1 September 2013, "Save the Badger Badger Badger" charted at No. 79 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 39 on the UK iTunes chart and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock chart. In June 2013 naturalist Sir David Attenborough and rock guitarist Slash joined May to form a supergroup, Artful Badger and Friends, and released a song dedicated to badgers, "Badger Swagger".

Prior to the 2015 general election, it was reported that May was considering standing as an independent Member of Parliament. It was also revealed that May had started a "Common Decency" project "to re-establish common decency in our lives, work and Parliament". May said he wanted to "get rid of the current government" and wished to see a House of Commons containing "individuals voting according to their conscience". May was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas at the election. He also endorsed a Conservative Party candidate, Henry Smith, on the grounds of his animal welfare record.

In July 2015, May criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron for giving Members of Parliament a free vote on amending the ban on fox hunting in England and Wales. During a live television interview, he described the pro-hunting organisation the Countryside Alliance as "a bunch of lying bastards" for their support for a change to the law. The government postponed the vote following the intervention of the Scottish National Party's Westminster MPs, who committed to vote to keep the ban as it existed. May told anti-hunt protesters in a rally outside Parliament that it was "a very, very important day for our democracy" but added "we have not yet won the war, there's no room for complacency".

In June 2017, May endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 general election. May shared an article on Twitter by The Independent headlined "Jeremy Corbyn says Fox hunting is 'barbarity' and pledges to keep it banned" and captioned it: "Well, I guess that just about clinches it !! Anyone see any good reason not to prefer the evidently decent Corbyn over the weak and wobbly Mrs May? Bri".

In October 2018, May said, "I don't like all this separatist stuff and you know this sort of illusion that we can all stand on our own, to me the future lies in co-operation. I get up every day and put my head in my hands about Brexit – I think it's the stupidest thing we ever tried to do." He also said that Prime Minister Theresa May was "driven by vanity and thirst for power".

In the run-up to the 2019 United Kingdom general election May criticised what he saw as the poor conduct of the media and declined to endorse either candidate, stating that he found it "impossible" to vote for either Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson. After the election in which the Conservatives won a majority, May vowed to continue fighting for animal rights but in an Instagram and blog post he urged his followers to congratulate Johnson and "wish Boris a decent chance to rebuild Britain" before praising reforms to animal welfare laws made by Conservative Party Environment Secretary Michael Gove. In 2021 May criticised Johnson for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it inadequate.

In the lead up to the 2019 Okinawan referendum on landfill work at Henoko Bay for the expansion of the base in Okinawa, Japan, May advocated voting in opposition to the landfill.

Stereophotography
May has had a lifelong interest in collecting Victorian stereophotography. In 2009, with co-author Elena Vidal, he published his second book, A Village Lost and Found, on the work of English stereophotography innovator T. R. Williams. He was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Saxby Medal in 2012 for achievement in the field of three-dimensional imaging.

May made a significant technical contribution to the book to accompany the exhibition 'Stereoscopic Photographs of Pablo Picasso by Robert Mouzillat', held at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England, from February to June 2014. The book provides photographs of Picasso in his studio, at a bullfight at Arles, and in his garden. May's 3D Owl viewer is used to view the photographs in 3D.

The purchase of his first card in 1973 started May on a lifelong and worldwide search for Les Diableries, which are stereoscopic photographs depicting scenes of daily life in Hell. On 10 October 2013 the book Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming was published.

In 2017, May published Queen in 3-D, chronicling the group's 50-year history. It contains over 300 of his own stereoscopic photos and is the first book about the band published by one of its members. Included with the book is May's patented OWL Stereoscopic Viewer.

In 2021, May was awarded an honorary fellowship and Denis Pellerin was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Literature from the Royal Holloway College, University of London. The conferred degrees recognized their work to preserve Victorian stereoscopy through the London Stereoscopic Company. It recognizes their contribution to photography and preservation.

Portrayal in film
In the 2018 biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody, he was portrayed by Gwilym Lee. May himself served as a creative and musical consultant for the film, and worked especially closely with Lee.

Discography
With Queen

 * Queen (1973)
 * Queen II (1974)
 * Sheer Heart Attack (1974)
 * A Night at the Opera (1975)
 * A Day at the Races (1976)
 * News of the World (1977)
 * Jazz (1978)
 * The Game (1980)
 * Flash Gordon (1980)
 * Hot Space (1982)
 * The Works (1984)
 * A Kind of Magic (1986)
 * The Miracle (1989)
 * Innuendo (1991)
 * Made in Heaven (1995)

Solo discography

 * Back to the Light (1992)
 * Another World (1998)
 * Furia (2000) soundtrack

Collaborations
 * Star Fleet Project (with Eddie Van Halen) (1983)
 * El Vampiro Bajo el Sol (with Paralamas do Sucesso and Fito Paez) (1994)
 * Feedback 86 (with Steve Hackett) (2000) Recorded in 1986 and released in 2000.
 * Anthems (with Kerry Ellis) (2010)
 * Acoustic by Candlelight (with Kerry Ellis) (2013)
 * Golden Days (with Kerry Ellis) (2017)
 * We are One (with Jayce Lewis) (2018)
 * Blue on Black (with Five Finger Death Punch, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Brantley Gilbert) (2019)
 * Floating in Heaven (single with Graham Gouldman) (2022)
 * Fought & Lost (single with Sam Ryder) (2023)

title: Brian May


text:
John Ousterhout

John Kenneth Ousterhout (, born October 15, 1954) is a professor of computer science at Stanford University. He founded Electric Cloud with John Graham-Cumming. Ousterhout was a professor of computer science at University of California, Berkeley where he created the Tcl scripting language and the Tk platform-independent widget toolkit, and proposed the idea of coscheduling. Ousterhout led the research group that designed the experimental Sprite operating system and the first log-structured file system. Ousterhout also led the team that developed the Magic VLSI computer-aided design (CAD) program.

He received his bachelor's degree in physics from Yale University in 1975, and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980.

Ousterhout received the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1987 for his work on Electronic design automation CAD systems for very-large-scale integrated circuits. For the same work, he was inducted in 1994 as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. Ousterhout was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2001 for improving our ability to program computers by raising the level of abstraction.

In 1994, Ousterhout left Berkeley to join Sun Microsystems Laboratories, which hired a team to join him in Tcl development. After several years at Sun, he left and co-founded Scriptics, Inc. (later renamed Ajuba Solutions) in January 1998 to provide professional Tcl development tools. Most of the Tcl team followed him from Sun. Ajuba was purchased by Interwoven in October 2000. He joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2008.

Selected works

 * A Philosophy of Software Design, (Yaknyam Press, 2018, ISBN 1732102201)
 * A Philosophy of Software Design, (Yaknyam Press, 2018, ISBN 1732102201)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: John Ousterhout


text:
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized by the United States Congress. The Port Authority oversees much of the regional transportation infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the geographical jurisdiction of the Port of New York and New Jersey. This 1500 mi2 port district is generally encompassed within a 25 mi radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. The Port Authority is headquartered at 4 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

The Port Authority operates the Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, which handled the third-largest volume of shipping among all ports in the United States in 2004, and the largest on the Eastern Seaboard. The Port Authority also operates six bi-state crossings: three connecting New Jersey with Manhattan, and three connecting New Jersey with Staten Island. The Port Authority Bus Terminal and the PATH rail system are also run by the Port Authority, as well as LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Teterboro Airport and Stewart International Airport. The agency has its own 2,232-member Port Authority Police Department.

History
The Port of New York and New Jersey comprised the main point of embarkation for U.S. troops and supplies sent to Europe during World War I, via the New York Port of Embarkation. The congestion at the port led experts to realize the need for a port authority to supervise the extremely complex system of bridges, highways, subways, and port facilities in the New York-New Jersey area. The solution was the 1921 creation of the Port Authority under the supervision of the governors of the two states. By issuing its own bonds, it was financially independent of either state; the bonds were paid off from tolls and fees, not from taxes. It became one of the major agencies of the metropolitan area for large-scale projects. Early bond issues were tied to specific projects, but this changed in 1935 when the Authority issued General and Refunding bonds with a claim on its general revenues.

Previous disputes
In the early years of the 20th century, there were disputes between the states of New Jersey and New York over rail freights and boundaries. At the time, rail lines terminated on the New Jersey side of the harbor, while ocean shipping was centered on Manhattan and Brooklyn. Freight had to be shipped across the Hudson River in barges. In 1916, New Jersey launched a lawsuit against New York over issues of rail freight, with the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issuing an order that the two states work together, subordinating their own interests to the public interest. The Harbor Development Commission, a joint advisory board set-up in 1917, recommended that a bi-state authority be established to oversee efficient economic development of the port district. The Port of New York Authority was established on April 30, 1921, through an interstate compact between the states of New Jersey and New York. This was the first such agency in the United States, created under a provision in the Constitution of the United States permitting interstate compacts. The idea for the Port Authority was conceived during the Progressive Era, which aimed at the reduction of political corruption and at increasing the efficiency of government. With the Port Authority at a distance from political pressures, it was able to carry longer-term infrastructure projects irrespective of the election cycles and in a more efficient manner. In 1972 it was renamed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to better reflect its status as a partnership between the two states.

Throughout its history, there have been concerns about democratic accountability, or lack thereof at the Port Authority. The Port District is irregularly shaped but comprises a 1500 sqmi area roughly within a 25 mi radius of the Statue of Liberty.

Interstate crossings
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were no road bridge or tunnel crossings between the two states. The initial tunnel crossings were completed privately by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad in 1908 and 1909 ("Hudson Tubes"), followed by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1910 ("North River Tunnels"). Under an independent agency, the Holland Tunnel was opened in 1927, with some planning and construction pre-dating the Port Authority. With the rise in automobile traffic, there was demand for more Hudson River crossings. Using its ability to issue bonds and collect revenue, the Port Authority has built and managed major infrastructure projects. Early projects included bridges across the Arthur Kill, which separates Staten Island from New Jersey. The Goethals Bridge, named after chief engineer of the Panama Canal Commission General George Washington Goethals, connected Elizabeth, New Jersey and Howland Hook, Staten Island. At the south end of Arthur Kill, the Outerbridge Crossing was built and named after the Port Authority's first chairman, Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge. Construction of both bridges was completed in 1928. The Bayonne Bridge, opened in 1931, was built across the Kill van Kull, connecting Staten Island with Bayonne, New Jersey.

Construction began in 1927 on the George Washington Bridge, linking the northern part of Manhattan with Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Port Authority chief engineer, Othmar Ammann, overseeing the project. The bridge was completed in October 1931, ahead of schedule and well under the estimated costs. This efficiency exhibited by the Port Authority impressed President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used this as a model in creating the Tennessee Valley Authority and other such entities.

In 1930, the Holland Tunnel was placed under the control of the Port Authority, providing significant toll revenues. The Port Authority also controlled the Lincoln Tunnel, connecting New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan. The Lincoln Tunnel opened in 1937 as a single-tube tunnel; a second tube opened in 1945, and a third tube opened in 1957.

In 1962, the Port Authority absorbed the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad and reorganized it as Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). As part of the deal, the Port Authority acquired the rights to build the original World Trade Center on the site of the old Hudson Terminal, one of two terminals in Manhattan for H&M/PATH.

Airport expansion
In 1942, Austin J. Tobin became the executive director of the Port Authority. In the post-World War II period, the Port Authority expanded its operations to include airports, and marine terminals, with projects including Newark Liberty International Airport and Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminals. Meanwhile, the city-owned La Guardia Field was nearing capacity in 1939 and needed expensive upgrades and expansion. At the time, airports were operated as loss leaders, and the city was having difficulties maintaining the status quo, losing money and unable to undertake needed expansions. The city was looking to hand the airports over to a public authority, possibly to Robert Moses' Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. After long negotiations with the City of New York, a 50-year lease, commencing on May 31, 1947, went to the Port Authority of New York to rehabilitate, develop, and operate La Guardia Airport (La Guardia Field), John F. Kennedy International Airport (Idlewild Airport), and Floyd Bennett Field. The Port Authority transformed the airports into fee-generating facilities, adding stores and restaurants.

World Trade Center
David Rockefeller, president of Chase Manhattan Bank, envisioned a World Trade Center for lower Manhattan. Realizing that he needed public funding in order to construct the massive project, he approached Tobin. Although many questioned the Port Authority's entry into the real estate market, Tobin saw the project as a way to enhance the agency's power and prestige, and agreed to the project. The Port Authority was the overseer of the World Trade Center, hiring the architect Minoru Yamasaki and engineer Leslie Robertson.

Yamasaki ultimately settled on the idea of twin towers. To meet the Port Authority's requirement to build 10 e6sqft of office space, the towers would each be 110 stories tall. The size of the project raised ire from the owner of the Empire State Building, which would lose its title of tallest building in the world. Other critics objected to the idea of this much "subsidized" office space going on the open market, competing with the private sector. Others questioned the cost of the project, which in 1966 had risen to $575million. Final negotiations between The City of New York and the Port Authority centered on tax issues. A final agreement was made that the Port Authority would make annual payments in lieu of taxes, for the 40% of the World Trade Center leased to private tenants. The remaining space was to be occupied by state and federal government agencies. In 1962, the Port Authority signed the United States Customs Service as a tenant, and in 1964 they signed a deal with the State of New York to locate government offices at the World Trade Center.

In August 1968, construction on the World Trade Center's north tower started, with construction on the south tower beginning in January 1969. When the World Trade Center twin towers were completed, the total cost to the Port Authority had reached $900million. The buildings were dedicated on April 4, 1973, with Tobin, who had retired the year before, absent from the ceremonies.

In 1986, the Port Authority sold rights to the World Trade Center name for $10 to an organization run by an outgoing executive, Guy F. Tozzoli. He in turn made millions of dollars selling the use of the name in up to 28 different states.

After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Port Authority was sued by survivors of the attack for negligence in not making security upgrades to known flaws that could have prevented the attack. The Port Authority was ruled to be negligent.

September 11 attacks

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent collapse of the World Trade Center buildings impacted the Port Authority. With the Port Authority's headquarters located in 1 World Trade Center, it became deprived of a base of operations and sustained a great number of casualties. An estimated 1,400 Port Authority employees worked in the World Trade Center. Eighty-four employees, including 37 Port Authority police officers, its executive director, Neil D. Levin, and police superintendent, Fred V. Morrone, died. In rescue efforts following the collapse, two Port Authority police officers, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, were pulled out alive after spending nearly 24 hours beneath 30 ft of rubble. Their rescue was later portrayed in the 2006 Oliver Stone film World Trade Center. Future Executive Director Christopher O. Ward was at the World Trade Center on 9/11, and is a survivor of the attack. Ward was Chief of External Affairs & Director of Port Development under Neil Levin at the time. As the executive director from 2008 to 2011, he is credited with turning around Ground Zero construction and having the memorial ready for the 10th anniversary. A former attorney for the PANYNJ who worked on 9/11 related issues is now on the federal bench, Angel Kelley.

Fort Lee lane closure scandal
The Fort Lee lane closure scandal was a US political scandal that concerns New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's staff and his Port Authority political appointees conspiring to create a traffic jam in Fort Lee, New Jersey as political retribution, and their attempts to cover up these actions and suppress internal and public disclosures. Dedicated toll lanes for one of the Fort Lee entrances (used by local traffic from Fort Lee and surrounding communities) to the upper level on the George Washington Bridge, which connects to Manhattan, were reduced from three to one from September 9–13, 2013. The toll lane closures caused massive Fort Lee traffic back-ups, which affected public safety due to extensive delays by police and emergency service providers and disrupted schools due to the delayed arrivals of students and teachers. Two Port Authority officials (who were appointed by Christie and would later resign) claimed that reallocating two of the toll lanes from the local Fort Lee entrance to the major highways was due to a traffic study evaluating "traffic safety patterns" at the bridge, but the executive director of the Port Authority was unaware of a traffic study.

, the repercussions and controversy surrounding these actions continue to be under investigation by the Port Authority, federal prosecutors, and a New Jersey legislature committee. The Port Authority's chairman, David Samson, who was appointed by Governor Christie, resigned on March 28, 2014, amid allegations of his involvement in the scandal and other controversies.

Caren Turner scandal
In April 2018, Caren Turner resigned from the Board of Commissioners after an ethics investigation revealed that her attempt to intervene in a traffic stop for her daughter included what the Port Authority described as "profoundly disturbing" conduct. New Jersey police released a videotape of her attempting to leverage her position at the Port Authority to intimidate police officers, following a routine traffic stop of a vehicle in which her adult daughter was a passenger. Her case was referred to New Jersey's Ethics Commission.

Governance
The Port Authority is jointly controlled by the governors of New York and New Jersey, who appoint the members of the agency's Board of Commissioners and retain the right to veto the actions of the commissioners from their own state. Each governor appoints six members to the Board of Commissioners, who are subject to state senate confirmation and serve overlapping six-year terms without pay. An executive director is appointed by the board of commissioners to deal with day-to-day operations and to execute the Port Authority's policies. Under an informal power-sharing agreement, the governor of New Jersey chooses the chairman of the board and the deputy executive director, while the governor of New York selects the vice chairman and executive director.

The Port Authority is headquartered at 4 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The agency was headquartered at 1 World Trade Center in the first World Trade Center complex, where it occupied 22411 sqft of space. It had been headquartered in the WTC complex beginning in 1973. After the previous headquarters were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Port Authority moved into 225 Park Avenue South in Midtown Manhattan, with employees divided between offices in New York and New Jersey, before returning to the World Trade Center in 2015.

After the September 11 attacks, a Security Committee was established with Commissioner David Mack as chairman and Commissioner Bruce Blakeman as Vice Chairman to oversee the Port Authority Police Department, infrastructure security and Homeland Security for all Port Authority assets most of which are high terrorist targets.

Financially, the Port Authority has no power to tax and does not receive tax money from any local or state governments. Instead, it operates on the revenues it makes from its rents, tolls, fees, and facilities.

Board of Commissioners
Meetings of the Board of Commissioners are public. Members of the public may address the Board at these meetings, subject to a prior registration process via email. Public records of the Port Authority may be requested via the Office of the Secretary according to an internal Freedom of Information policy which is intended to be consistent with and similar to the state Freedom of Information policies of both New York and New Jersey.

Members of the Board of Commissioners are typically business titans and political power brokers who maintain close relationships with their respective governors. On February 3, 2011, former New Jersey Attorney General David Samson was named the new chairman of the Port Authority by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Gov. Christie announced Samson's resignation in March 2016, a casualty of investigations into the "Bridgegate" scandal. Basil Paterson, father of former Governor David Paterson, served on the board from 1989–95, and again from 2013-14.

The current commissioners are:

Chairs
On July 14, 2016, David Samson pleaded guilty to a felony for conspiring to impede an airport project to coerce United Airlines to reinstate a discontinued flight to an airport in South Carolina, near a home that he owned. He was appointed by Chris Christie.
 * Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, 1921–1924
 * Julian Gregory, 1924–1926
 * George Sebastian Silzer, 1926–1928
 * John F. Galvin, 1928–1933
 * Frank C. Ferguson, 1934–1945
 * Howard S. Cullman, 1945–1955
 * Donald V. Lowe, 1955–1959
 * S. Sloan Colt, 1959–1968
 * James C. Kellogg III, 1968–1974
 * William Ronan, 1974–1977
 * Alan Sagner, 1977–1985
 * Philip D. Kaltenbacher, 1985–1990
 * Richard Leone, 1990–1994
 * Kathleen Donovan, 1994–1995
 * Lewis Eisenberg, 1995–2001
 * Jack Sinagra, 2001–2003
 * Anthony R. Coscia, 2003–2011
 * David Samson, 2011–2014
 * John J. Degnan, 2014–2017
 * Kevin J. O'Toole, 2017–present

Facilities

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey manages and maintains infrastructure critical to the New York/New Jersey region's trade and transportation network—five of the region's airports, the New York/New Jersey seaport, the PATH rail transit system, six tunnels and bridges between New York and New Jersey, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and George Washington Bridge Bus Station in Manhattan and The World Trade Center site.

Seaports
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest port complex on the East Coast of North America. In 2021, Port Authority seaports handled the fourth largest amount of shipping among U.S. ports, measured in total tonnage. As of August 2022, the Port Authority led the country when considering only containers and not bulk materials such as petroleum and grain.

The Port Authority operates the following seaports:
 * Port Jersey Marine Terminal in Bayonne and Jersey City
 * Brooklyn Port Authority Marine Terminal comprising the Brooklyn Piers and Red Hook Container Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn
 * Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island.
 * Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in Newark and Elizabeth, the first in the nation to containerize,.

The Port Authority operates the ExpressRail rail services within the seaport area, including dockside trackage and railyards for transloading. It interchanges with Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CRCX) on the Chemical Coast Secondary, Norfolk Southern (NS), CSX Transportation (CSX), and Canadian Pacific (CP). From January through October 2014 the system handled 391,596 rail lifts. As of 2014, three ExpressRail systems (Elizabeth, Newark, Staten Island) were in operation with the construction of a fourth at Port Jersey underway.

The Port Authority operates New York New Jersey Rail, LLC (NYNJ), a switching and terminal railroad operating a car float operation across Upper New York Bay between the Greenville Yard in Jersey City and Brooklyn.

Airports
The Port Authority operates the following airports: Both Kennedy and LaGuardia airports are owned by the City of New York and leased to the Port Authority for operating purposes. Newark Liberty is owned by the cities of Elizabeth and Newark and is also leased to the Authority. In 2007, Stewart International Airport, owned by the State of New York, was leased to the Port Authority. The Port Authority officially took over select management functions of the Atlantic City International Airport on July 1, 2013, in conjunction with the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which leases the airport site from the FAA.
 * Atlantic City International Airport, (Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey) (performs select management duties)
 * John F. Kennedy International Airport (Queens, New York)
 * LaGuardia Airport (Queens, New York)
 * Newark Liberty International Airport (Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey)
 * Stewart International Airport, (Newburgh, New York)
 * Teterboro Airport (Teterboro, New Jersey)

JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty as a whole form the largest airport system in the United States, second in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and first in the world by total flight operations, with JFK being the 19th busiest in the world and the 6th busiest in the U.S.

Heliports
The Authority operated the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (Manhattan, New York) until the lease expired in August 2007 but continued to operate it until the next leasee took over. The Authority had operated the other heliports in Manhattan but gave up leases for all of them over the years.

Bridges and tunnels
The Port Authority manages every crossing between New York City and New Jersey, which include the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, and the Holland Tunnel, which all connect Manhattan and Northern New Jersey, as well as the Goethals Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing, which connect Staten Island and New Jersey. They also maintain many entrances approaches to these crossings, such as the GWB Plaza and Lincoln Tunnel Helix.

Bus and rail transit
The Port Authority operates the PATH rapid transit system linking lower and midtown Manhattan with New Jersey, the AirTrain Newark system linking Newark International Airport with NJ Transit and Amtrak via a station on the Northeast Corridor rail line, and the AirTrain JFK system linking JFK with the Howard Beach subway station and the Jamaica subway and Long Island Rail Road stations.

Major bus depots include the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street, the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, and the Journal Square Transportation Center in Jersey City.

The PANYNJ is a major stakeholder in the Gateway Program. The program will upgrade the Northeast Corridor by building two new tunnels under the Hudson River paralleling the existing North River Tunnels, as well as connecting infrastructure.

The Port Authority also owns and operates a network of shuttle buses on its airport properties. As of 2017, the agency operates 23 Orion buses at Newark Airport, 7 at LaGuardia Airport, and 40 at JFK Airport, all purchased in 2007 and 2009.

Real estate
The Port Authority also participates in joint development ventures around the region, including the Teleport business park on Staten Island, Bathgate Industrial Park in the Bronx, the Industrial Park at Elizabeth, the Essex County Resource Recovery Facility, Newark Legal Center, Queens West in Long Island City, and the South Waterfront in Hoboken. However, by April 2015, the agency was considering divesting itself of the properties to raise revenue and return to the core mission of supporting transportation infrastructure.

World Trade Center
Major projects by the Port Authority include One World Trade Center and other construction at the World Trade Center site. Other projects include a new passenger terminal at JFK International Airport, and redevelopment of Newark Liberty International Airport's Terminal B, and replacement of the Goethals Bridge. The Port Authority also has plans to buy 340 new PATH cars and begin major expansion of Stewart International Airport.

As owner of the World Trade Center site, the Port Authority has worked since 2001 on plans for reconstruction of the site, along with Silverstein Properties, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. In 2006, the Port Authority reached a deal with Larry Silverstein, which ceded control of One World Trade Center to the Port Authority. The deal gave Silverstein rights to build three towers along the eastern side of the site, including 150 Greenwich Street, 175 Greenwich Street, and 200 Greenwich Street. Also part of the plans was the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, which opened in March 2016 and replaced the temporary PATH station that opened in November 2003.

Airports
The Port Authority began construction of a new terminal at Newark Airport in June 2017. The new facility will replace Terminal A and will open in 2022. The PATH's Newark–World Trade Center train route is planned to be extended from its terminus at Newark Penn Station to a new Newark Liberty International Airport Station. The PANYNJ announced in March 2023 that it was deferring funding for the Newark Airport extension to a future capital plan.

Another Port Authority project involves redeveloping LaGuardia Airport, replacing three existing terminals with a single terminal. Terminal B would be demolished and terminals C and D would be merged. Some 2 mi of additional taxiways are to be built, and transportation around the terminals would be reorganized. The redevelopment is expected to cost $7.6billion in total. Construction started in 2016, and the first part of the new terminal opened in 2021, with completion in 2026. As part of the reconstruction, the AirTrain LGA people mover system was to have been built between the airport and Willets Point, Queens. The AirTrain was supposed to start construction in 2020 and be completed by 2022, but the project was canceled in March 2023 after several years of delays.

The Port Authority is also planning to redevelop the entirety of John F. Kennedy International Airport, replacing four existing terminals with two new terminals at a cost of $11billion. Roadway access, as well as train capacity on the AirTrain JFK, would be expanded. Under the plan, the first gates would open in 2023, and the project would be complete in 2025. Work on a new Terminal 1 began in 2022, and work on Terminal 6 began in early 2023. In addition, Terminal 4 was expanded.

Law enforcement
The Port Authority has its own police department. In 2001, the department employed approximately 4,000 police officers and supervisors who had full police status in New York and New Jersey.


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Vardar

The Vardar (, Vardar/-i, Vardar) or Axios (Αξιός, Asi (historically) ) is the longest river in North Macedonia and a major river in Greece, where it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. It is 388 km long, out of which 76 km are in Greece, and drains an area of around 25000 km2. The maximum depth of the river is 4 m.

Etymology
The name Vardar for the river may have been derived from Thracian, although Dardanian, Paeonian, Ancient Macedonian and Ancient Greek were also spoken in the lands drained by the river.

The modern Vardar is thought to derive from an earlier *Vardários, which may ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *(s)wordo-wori- "black water". The name Vardários (Βαρδάριος) was sometimes used by the Ancient Greeks in the 3rd century BC. The same name was widely used in the Byzantine era.

Vardar/Vardarios may be a translation of (or otherwise have a similar meaning as) Axios, which may be Thracian and may have meant "not-shining" from PIE *n.-sk(e)i (cf. Avestan axšaēna "dark-coloured"). The oldest known name of the river, Axios, is mentioned by Homer (Il. 21.141, Il. 2.849) as the home of the Paeonians allies of Troy. Pjetër Bogdani would use the form Asi, an earlier Albanian-language name for the river.

This same hypothetical Thracian Axio- meaning "dark, not-shining" is theorized to be found in the name of a city at the mouth of the Danube, called Axiopolis in Greek and Axíopa (perhaps again meaning just "dark water") in Thracian, which may later have been translated into Slavic as Cernavodă, also meaning "black water".

Geography
The river rises at Vrutok, a few kilometers southwest of Gostivar in North Macedonia. It passes through Gostivar, Skopje and into Veles, crosses the Greek border near Gevgelija, Polykastro and Axioupoli ("town on the Axiós"), before emptying into the Aegean Sea in Central Macedonia, west of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

The Vardar basin comprises two-thirds of the territory of North Macedonia. The valley features fertile lands in the Polog region, around Gevgelija and in the Thessaloniki regional unit. The river is surrounded by mountains elsewhere. The superhighways Greek National Road 1 in Greece and M1 and E75 run within the valley along the river's entire length to near Skopje.

The river was very famous during the Ottoman Empire and remains so in modern-day Turkey as the inspiration for many folk songs, of which the most famous is Vardar Ovasi. It has also been depicted on the coat of arms of Skopje, which in turn is incorporated in the city's flag.

Project to construct the Danube-Vardar-Aegean Canal
A proposal to construct a canal connecting the Morava river valley with the Vardar, and hence linking the Danube to the Aegean Canal, has been a dream for a long time. Le Figaro published a project of Athens and Belgrade on 28.08.2017. The Greek-Serbian proposal made in Beijing is Pharaonic: 651 km. A project worth 17 billion.

Vardaris wind
The Vardaris or Vardarec is a powerful prevailing northerly ravine wind which blows across the river valley in Greece as well as in North Macedonia. At first it descends along the "canal" of the Vardar valley, usually as a breeze. When it encounters the high mountains that separate Greece from North Macedonia, it descends the other side, gathering a tremendous momentum and bringing cold conditions to the city of Thessaloniki and the Axios delta. Somewhat similar to the mistral wind of France, it occurs when atmospheric pressure over eastern Europe is higher than over the Aegean Sea, as is often the case in winter.

title: Vardar


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Grammatical person

In linguistics, grammatical person is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically, the distinction is between the speaker (first person), the addressee (second person), and others (third person). A language's set of pronouns is typically defined by grammatical person. First person includes the speaker (English: I, we), second person is the person or people spoken to (English: your or you), and third person includes all that are not listed above (English: he, she, it, they). It also frequently affects verbs and sometimes nouns or possessive relationships.

Number
In Indo-European languages, first-, second-, and third-person pronouns are typically also marked for singular and plural forms, and sometimes dual form as well (grammatical number).

Inclusive/exclusive distinction
Some other languages use different classifying systems, especially in the plural pronouns. One frequently found difference not present in most Indo-European languages is a contrast between inclusive and exclusive "we": a distinction of first-person plural pronouns between including or excluding the addressee.

Honorifics
Many languages express person with different morphemes in order to distinguish degrees of formality and informality. A simple honorific system common among European languages is the T–V distinction. Some other languages have much more elaborate systems of formality that go well beyond the T–V distinction, and use many different pronouns and verb forms that express the speaker's relationship with the people they are addressing. Many Malayo-Polynesian languages, such as Javanese and Balinese, are well known for their complex systems of honorifics; Japanese, Korean, and Chinese also have similar systems to a lesser extent.

Effect on verbs
In many languages, the verb takes a form dependent on the person of the subject and whether it is singular or plural. In English, this happens with the verb to be as follows:
 * I am (first-person singular)
 * you are/thou art (second-person singular)
 * he, she, one, it is (third-person singular)
 * we are (first-person plural)
 * you are/ye are (second-person plural)
 * they are (third-person plural, and third-person singular)

Other verbs in English take the suffix -s to mark the present tense third person singular, excluding singular 'they'.

In many languages, such as French, the verb in any given tense takes a different suffix for any of the various combinations of person and number of the subject.

Additional persons
The grammar of some languages divide the semantic space into more than three persons. The extra categories may be termed fourth person, fifth person, etc. Such terms are not absolute but can refer, depending on context, to any of several phenomena.

Some Algonquian languages and Salishan languages divide the category of third person into two parts: proximate for a more topical third person, and obviative for a less topical third person. The obviative is sometimes called the fourth person. In this manner, Hindi and Bangla may also categorize pronouns in the fourth, and with the latter a fifth person.

The term fourth person is also sometimes used for the category of indefinite or generic referents, which work like one in English phrases such as "one should be prepared" or people in people say that..., when the grammar treats them differently from ordinary third-person forms. The so-called "zero person" in Finnish and related languages, in addition to passive voice, may serve to leave the subject-referent open. Zero person subjects are sometimes translated as "one", although in tone it is similar to English's generic you "Ei saa koskettaa" ("Not allowed to touch", "You should not touch").

Grammar

 * English personal pronouns
 * Gender-neutral pronoun
 * Gender-specific pronoun
 * Generic antecedents
 * Generic you
 * Grammatical conjugation
 * Grammatical number
 * Illeism
 * Personal pronoun
 * Singular they
 * Verb

Works

 * First Person Singular
 * First Person Plural, a book by Cameron West
 * Second Person Singular, a book by Sayed Kashua
 * Third Person Singular Number, a film by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
 * Third Person Plural, a film directed by James Ricketson and starring Bryan Brown

title: Grammatical person