Hawking to receive highest US honour from Obama

Stephen Hawking will receive the highest US civilian honour from President Barack Obama next month.

Washington: Stephen Hawking, the noted British physicist, will receive the highest US civilian honour from President Barack Obama next month. The 67-year-old British theoretical physicist at Cambridge University will be among 16 "agents of change", including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, who will be honoured with the Medal of Freedom on August 12, the White House has said.

Other recipients include Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, Sidney Poitier, the actor and Billie Jean King, the tennis player. Obama said that the list showed "an incredible diversity of backgrounds". However, "each has been an agent of change. Each saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way," Obama said in a statement. Professor Hawking, who wrote the bestseller `A Brief History of Time` and has a neuromuscular dystrophy that has left him almost totally paralysed, is expected to travel to Washington to receive the award next month. Hawking, who has overcome the debilitating effects of motor neuron disease to become a world-renowned physicist, was hailed by the White House for unlocking "new pathways of discovery" and "inspiring everyday citizens." In a statement, Hawking said he was "very much looking forward to travelling to Washington" to meet Obama, whom the physicist called a "remarkable man...whom I admire deeply." Bureau Report