• Question: Have you ever met Stephen Hawking?

    Asked by lima123 to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 14 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      I haven’t, although he still gives lectures and so on (I know someone who has). I’m in Cambridge for a conference this summer, so I guess I might see him, who knows!

      In terms of famous scientists, used to work on the same corridor as Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered pulsars, which are neutron stars that are rotating fast and shining beams of light at us like lighthouses (which some people thought for a while were aliens sending us messages). I also did some work with Joe Silk, who did a bunch of impressive things in cosmology and galaxy formation. My sister has met Oliver Sacks and my dad has met Roger Penrose at talks they gave. And there are a bunch of people who have done amazing things that I’ve met, but who probably aren’t known that well outside of astronomy.

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      I haven’t either. Actually, he recently visited CERN for a day (there was a big function in Geneva he was going to). I am an ATLAS guide, which means I am allowed to take people underground to visit the ATLAS detector. I had the opportunity to do a tour that day but I turned it down because I had a meeting – I only found out afterwards that Hawking would have been on the tour! (nearly kicked myself)

    • Photo: Robert Woolfson

      Robert Woolfson answered on 15 Jun 2013:

      I haven’t either. Working in a chemistry department, I’m probably not going to run into him. However, have met Andrei Geim (graphene nobel prize winner) and his wife, Brian Cox, and quite a few famous chemists who aren’t so well known.

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 15 Jun 2013:

      No, but I keep meaning to accept his friend request on facebook (joke!)…

    • Photo: Kate Husband

      Kate Husband answered on 16 Jun 2013:

      I’ve been in the same room as him, if that counts! Like Sam says he is around in Cambridge quite a lot and that’s where I did my degree so it was quite likely I’d bump into him one day.

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