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Hawking visit: India charmed by the black-hole scientist
Stephen Hawking, unarguably the world`s most popular scientist, is in India on a 16-day visit from 2nd January. His charming smile has already entranced Indians. And when he said that the country`s penchant for science and mathematics is a national characteristic India could not have asked for a better compliment. Manushri Bahukhandi reports on this remarkable scientist.
Report - Manushri Bahukhandi
“As we shall see, the concept of time has no meaning before the beginning of the universe. St. Augustine first pointed this out. When asked: What did God do before he created the universe? Augustine didn`t reply: He was preparing Hell for people who asked such questions. Instead, he said that time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe.” [Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time ]
Stephen Hawking, unarguably the world’s most popular scientist, is in India on a 16-day visit from January 2nd. Aamchi Mumbai was the first stop on his second visit to India. And he lost no opportunity to take a tour of the city. Mumbai also got an opportunity to celebrate his 59TH birthday. A well-known cosmologist and mathematician, he was among the speakers at an international physics seminar that was held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai between January 5 and 10, 2001.
The five-day conference called ``Strings-2000,`` was organised by the TIFR in collaboration with institutes like the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics at Trieste, the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics at Calcutta and the IITs of Mumbai, Chennai and Kanpur.
His next stop was New Delhi where he arrived on the 16th of January. In Delhi he visited the famous Jantar Mantar and Qutab Minar. His visit to Jantar Mantar was replete with symbolism and he described the Indian penchant for science and mathematics as a national characteristic. He also met President KR Narayanan, a big fan of his. The President also expressed his wish to attend Hawking`s seminar on Albert Einstein in New Delhi in Siri Fort on 17TH January.
A path-breaking scientist being born 300 years after Galileo can be an amusing fact for trivia collectors. Stephen William Hawking who was born on 8 January 1942, exactly 300 years after Galileo, is perhaps best known for his discovery, in 1974, that black holes emit radiation, and for his ‘No-Boundary’ proposal made in 1983 with Jim Hartle of Santa Barbara.
His many publications include ‘The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey’ and ‘300 Years of Gravity’ both with W Israel. Stephen Hawking has two popular books published: the best seller A Brief History of Time, and his later book, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays.
Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes and is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Throughout the 1970s Stephen Hawking had been mainly studying black holes, but in 1981 his interest in questions about the origin and fate of the universe was reawakened when he attended a conference on cosmology.
Since then there has been no looking back and he is in hot pursuit of the Grand Unified Theory.
He will be leaving Indian shores on 18th January but his charming smile will remain imprinted in India’s memory for quite some time.
“As we shall see, the concept of time has no meaning before the beginning of the universe. St. Augustine first pointed this out. When asked: What did God do before he created the universe? Augustine didn`t reply: He was preparing Hell for people who asked such questions. Instead, he said that time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe.” [Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time ]
Stephen Hawking, unarguably the world’s most popular scientist, is in India on a 16-day visit from January 2nd. Aamchi Mumbai was the first stop on his second visit to India. And he lost no opportunity to take a tour of the city. Mumbai also got an opportunity to celebrate his 59TH birthday. A well-known cosmologist and mathematician, he was among the speakers at an international physics seminar that was held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai between January 5 and 10, 2001.
The five-day conference called ``Strings-2000,`` was organised by the TIFR in collaboration with institutes like the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics at Trieste, the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics at Calcutta and the IITs of Mumbai, Chennai and Kanpur.
His next stop was New Delhi where he arrived on the 16th of January. In Delhi he visited the famous Jantar Mantar and Qutab Minar. His visit to Jantar Mantar was replete with symbolism and he described the Indian penchant for science and mathematics as a national characteristic. He also met President KR Narayanan, a big fan of his. The President also expressed his wish to attend Hawking`s seminar on Albert Einstein in New Delhi in Siri Fort on 17TH January.
A path-breaking scientist being born 300 years after Galileo can be an amusing fact for trivia collectors. Stephen William Hawking who was born on 8 January 1942, exactly 300 years after Galileo, is perhaps best known for his discovery, in 1974, that black holes emit radiation, and for his ‘No-Boundary’ proposal made in 1983 with Jim Hartle of Santa Barbara.
His many publications include ‘The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey’ and ‘300 Years of Gravity’ both with W Israel. Stephen Hawking has two popular books published: the best seller A Brief History of Time, and his later book, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays.
Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes and is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Throughout the 1970s Stephen Hawking had been mainly studying black holes, but in 1981 his interest in questions about the origin and fate of the universe was reawakened when he attended a conference on cosmology.
Since then there has been no looking back and he is in hot pursuit of the Grand Unified Theory.
He will be leaving Indian shores on 18th January but his charming smile will remain imprinted in India’s memory for quite some time.