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 started to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but co-authored two scientific research papers: MgI Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum(1972) and An Investigation of the Motion of zodiacal dust Particles (Part I) (1973), which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.