Saturday, August 16, 2008

a brief history of our time with stephen hawking

Mica and I saw Stephen Hawking this afternoon. We were riding our bikes home after running some errands in town and passed him on the sidewalk. Before moving to Cambridge I said one of my goals is to meet Hawking. Today didn't seem like the appropriate time.

Hawking is a British theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge. He is known for his work in cosmology, quantum gravity and black holes and/or his books popularizing these areas of physics (e.g., A Brief History of Time). Being about one month into a postdoc in the theoretical sector of the Chemistry Department, I'm sure I'll have a better opportunity to introduce myself.

Most recently Hawking was in the news for his prerecorded address at a U.S. Congressional hearing, marking the 50th anniversary of NASA. The wav file of Hawking's message is here. Hawking was also on Charlie Rose (link).

Our ``sighting'' has motivated me to delve into some of Hawking's work. I want to be prepared for the next time we cross paths. Admittedly, I know little about his area of physics, but I'm excited to learn. More to come.

3 comments:

Anthony Costa said...

damn ... so when do you start work with him on your general relativity of molecular dynamics?

Jason said...

if the idea continues to stand i do plan to discuss it with him (or at least try). first though, i need to do some developing and bounce it off a few people.

Mary said...

What a nerd I am because that is so cool! Wow!