Here's how Indian scientists paid tribute to Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was undeniably one of the most famous scientists in the world. Touted to be the next biggest scientist since Einstein, Stephen Hawking was famous for his work that helped open portals into new discoveries. On Wednesday, the British theoretical physicist and cosmologist aged 76, passed away. Although he was confined to a wheelchair owing to his paralysis, he still gave a number of speeches through a computerised speech generator. And his lectures were extremely popular amongst students who were attracted to the fascinating theories of black holes.

Now, Indian scientists have paid tribute to the late British scientist. “Stephen Hawking was a larger than life figure. People may not remember him so much for his work on black holes but on how he brought science in the public gaze. The man on the street might not be aware of his scientific theories and research, but admired him for the way he overcame his afflictions,” said Somak Raychaudhury, director of the Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. “I was a 22-year-old student at Cambridge when I first met Hawking in the 1980s. He was in a wheelchair but had not undergone the operation that took away his ability to speak. In fact, I had attended a series of lectures that eventually became part of his best-selling book ‘A Brief History of Time’,” he added.

Another noted scientist Jayant Narlikar said, “Though we interacted only occasionally, we were both students at the same department at the Cambridge University. I guess he was a couple of years junior to me. I still remember him being an extremely hardworking and dedicated person on the campus who set out to achieve something big.” “He had a very sharp power to think and reason. His finding that black holes radiated energy was a milestone in black hole physics, as it went completely against the prevailing wisdom then… His works on Big Bang theory and space-time-singularity will be something he will always be remembered for,” he added.

“The work that he did along with his colleagues like Roger Penrose and Jacob Beckenstein would have made him famous anyway. I think he would have been a household name even if he did not get into public outreach of science so much. He had already earned fame through his scientific achievements. It was ground-breaking research and added, in very fundamental ways, new information to our understanding of the universe,” Gautam Mandal, a senior professor at a Mumbai-based Institute of Fundamental Research said.

Sandip Trivedi added, “He had this amazing ability to connect to people. He was a great communicator. And of course, the subjects he used to deal with, black holes, outer universe, are very fascinating topics. People loved listening to him.” Truly a legend has now left the world. May his soul rest in peace.