It’s a common tale. You’re in the middle of your PhD write-up, when an interesting job opportunity comes along. You start out on a career path and the thesis never quite gets finished.

For Brian May, just turned 60, that job was guitarist for rock band Queen. He gave up a doctorate in astronomy at Imperial in 1971, and never got round to completing his studies.

Until now. The ‘hirsute axemeister’, as the Guardian’s science podcast team recently dubbed him, resumed his studies on interplanetary dust clouds at Imperial College nine months ago, and is putting the finishing touches to the write-up.

“There are times when you really want to give up. There are times when you go, ‘Why on earth did I take this on?’” May recently told students at Exeter University – another sentiment familiar to those writing up. He will reportedly spend a couple of evenings making observations in the Canary Islands before handing in the thesis.

If he passes his viva, he should receive his doctorate in (appropriately) May next year.

Image by Thomas Steffan, reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license.