UK: Hawking 'mulling over' Canadian invitation

Professor Stephen Hawking is "mulling over" an invitation to quit Britain because government policy is making the country the home of "dull science", colleagues have said, reports The Telegraph. Last month the 66-year-old scientist accused the government of making "disastrous" £80 million (US$160 million) cuts to research funding.

Now he is said to be seriously considering an offer to join a fellow academic, who is leaving Cambridge University this autumn to head up a well-funded Canadian science institute. Professor Neil Turok, a leading authority on mathematical physics, said "the door is open" for Hawking to join him permanently at the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, which has received £300 million in funding.

The physicist decided to leave Cambridge after failing to persuade university authorities, research councils and sponsors to give £20 million to expand the university's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology - which he currently heads - into a fully-fledged Hawking Institute.

Full report on The Telegraph site