Stephen Hawking remembered by Bernard Carr

8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018The physicist ’s former research student recalls their close relationship at Cambridge, the sheer might of his intellect, and how he once bored the great man to sleep• Nicolas Roeg by Donald Sutherland• Read the Observer’s obituaries of 2018 in full hereStephen was not so famous when I began my PhD at Cambridge in 1972, but his brilliance was already clear to his peers and I found it rather daunting when, on becoming his research student, I was informed by one of my tutors that he was the brightest person in the department. Nevertheless, it soon became evident that my relationship with him would not be the usual type of supervisor-student relationship. In those days, before he had his entourage of nurses and assistants, students would necessarily have to help him in various ways on account of his disability. This was not an arduous task, but it did mean that my relationship with him became quite intimate. Indeed, I shared an office with him, lived with his family for a while and accompanied him as he travelled around the world, giving talks and collecting medals.I soon discovered some of Stephen ’s singular characteristics. The first, of course, was that he was very smart. Students are probably always in awe of their supervisors and with Stephen the awe was even greater. Indeed, on matters of physics, I always regarded him as an oracle, just a few words from him yielding insights that wou ld have taken weeks to work out on my own. How...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Stephen Hawking Astronomy Space Physics Science Source Type: news