Professor Stephen Hawking to visit Israel

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
The "most famous" living scientist in the world, British physics Prof. Steven Hawking of the University of Cambridge, will visit Israel for two weeks starting December 1. He will spend most of his time in Jerusalem, especially at the Hebrew University. Hawking shared the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics with Prof. Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford for their "brilliant development of the theory of general relativity, in which they have shown the necessity for cosmological singularities and have elucidated the physics of black holes. "In this work they have greatly enlarged our understanding of the origin and possible fate of the Universe," the Wolf Prize jury said. His visit is being organized by the British Embassy. Although he is almost totally paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig disease or motor neuron disease) and unable to speak, he is able to communicate via computer, is married with children and has a flourishing scientific career.