Physicist Hawking a ‘human dynamo’
Combined intellect with compassion
Stephen Hawking, the giant of physics who died yesterday, was touring the Center for Communications Enhancement at Boston Children’s Hospital when a quote scrawled on the wall caught his eye.
“You don’t need dexterity to manipulate concepts,” the message read. It’s there to inspire patients in wheelchairs, explained Howard Shane, the center’s director.
Hawking, at Children’s to visit the clinic that developed a key part of his first speech system and to speak to young patients who also used computers to communicate, stared at the wall, thought for a second, and started to type.
“No, just coffee,” Hawking said, according to Shane.
Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England, decades after being told he had just a few years to live. Hawking, who was paralyzed by ALS, used a wheelchair and an electronic voice system.
Physicists described Hawking yesterday as a true visionary in his field.
“Stephen really is one of the giants in the world of physics,” said Alan Guth, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “One of the amazing things about him was he was always cheerful in spite of all the difficulties in his life.”
Guth, who said he first met Hawking in 1982, said he was in awe of him.
“I was kind of shocked that my career had developed to a point where I could be invited to a conference by Stephen,” Guth said.
Hawking was best known for his work on black holes and the beginning of the universe, including a best selling book “A Brief History of Time.” Hawking served for many years as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, the same position Isaac Newton once held. Hawking reached prominence when he showed black holes emit radiation, contrary to accepted belief at the time.
“He would be one of the most remarkable personalities in science in the last century, there’s no question about that,” said Pran Nath, a physicist at Northeastern University. “He was amazing, a human dynamo.”
Hawking spoke at a conference at Northeastern University at Nath’s invitation in 1991, and spent the day giving an in-depth technical lecture, another talk for the public and spoke to Northeastern undergraduate and graduate students.
“At the end of the day, he still had enough energy to see the Museum of Fine Arts,” Nath said.
For all his renowned physics work, Hawking seemed well aware of his potential influence, particularly on those with disabilities. After a talk at Harvard, Guth said, Hawking went out of his way to invite a young man with autism to dinner, and made sure to speak to children using voice synthesizers when he visited Boston Children’s Hospital.
For Katherine Huggins and her son Matthew, who suffers from a mitochondrial disease and uses a wheelchair and a computerized speech system, that day will always be a treasured memory.
“To be there, with someone like Stephen Hawking, who obviously was very accomplished, was very inspiring for the kids,” Huggins said. “You can never underestimate the power of the human spirit.”