Stephen Hawking a warm person willing to discuss ideas: Mumbai physicists

The world’s most pre-eminent cosmologist of his time was both a source of inspiration and a sounding board for his contemporaries and juniors in the field in India.

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (

TIFR

) director Sandip Trivedi, whose area of research was dark energy, recalled that his interactions with Stephen Hawking began in the 90s when he was at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Trivedi had written a paper; and when the opportunity came his way to discuss it with Hawking, he was delighted. The great man evinced “a lot of interest in my paper. He read it in great detail and put questions which I answered.”

Trivedi, TIFR director since Jan 2015, said, “Subsequently, he invited me to a

conference

in 2003 at Cambridge. Here too...Hawking and I exchanged a lot of views. Over the years he has been in touch with scientists at TIFR both in Mumbai and Bengaluru, mainly in the area of black holes.”

At TIFR Colaba, members of the theoretical physics and astronomy and astrophysics departments were in touch with him. “They are now attempting to take his programme forward,” said Trivedi.

A senior professor of astronomy and astrophysics at TIFR, Pankaj Joshi, said during his stint at Cambridge he would spend time during lunch hour walking him along the river–the legendary physicist would be in his wheelchair. “He would be fed by his nurse. We used to talk about cosmology and collapsing stars. What struck me was his extraordinary sharpness.”

The portrait that comes across is of a warm person keen and willing to discuss ideas with fellow scientists and communicate his thoughts to a wider audience. Joshi recalls a particularly intense discussion in the late 80s around the time there was a debate raging on whether black holes are only made when stars collapse. “I was happy that he agreed with me,” said Joshi.

The only time Hawking visited India was in

January

2001 during the String conference. At the start of one of the sessions he began by asking the audience: “You may wonder how I feel about myself and how I view myself?” He then went on to say that he had successfully faced the challenges which confronted him and overcame the odds. “On hearing this, the gathering broke into an instant applause. It was remarkable how he was able to immediately connect with the delegates,” said Trivedi.

The presentation that followed was a memorable one and after that he took a tour of the labs at TIFR.


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