Question: As you know, Mr Hawking has recently died. Was he an inspiration to you? If so, what were your thoughts on his death and did he ever inspire you?

Hazel Gibson answered on 15 Mar 2018:

Yes he was (is) a huge inspiration to me, especially to see someone overcome their illness with such humour and determination. My uncle died from motor neurone disease (a different type though) so as a family we felt very connected to him in that sense, with his being patron on the Motor Neurone Disease Association and my cousin worked a lot with them in the last few years. But I also admired how he was able to make these incredible leaps of scientific imagination and then follow them up with testable theory. People will be working on his ideas for generations and that is something that I think all scientists admire, the ability to be truly creative in science, whilst keeping your feet firmly bedding in theory. Also I totally respect his dedication to science communication – in a time when not many scientists were making an attempt to talk to more than just their colleagues, he was out there sharing his ideas with anyone who wanted to know, and for a person with a disability to be that visible doing it, that was amazing. It just goes to show that science isn’t just for a certain kind of person – anyone can do science. My favourite quote of his from the Reithe lectures in 2016 also touches on what I liked about him – he took these incredible topics and made them so relatable. I think it is sad for science that he is gone, but he left such a lot of work for us that we will be honoring his memory for generations.

“The message of this lecture is that black holes ain’t as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly to another universe. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out.”