Stephen Hawking Lured to Waterloo's Perimeter Institute

Reuters reports that famed Cambridge University mathematician Stephen Hawking has been appointed as the first distinguished research chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, starting in the summer of 2009. Perimeter is a quantum theory and cosmology institute founded by RIM founder Mike Lazaridis in 1999.

“The institute’s twin focus, on quantum theory and gravity, is very close to my heart and central to explaining the origin of the universe,” Hawking said in a statement today. The author of the bestseller “A Brief History of Time”, Prof Hawking will make regular visits to the institute in the next few years and build links with Cambridge.

The image shows Hawking and daughter Lucy floating around aboard Zero Gravity Corporation’s June 9, 2007 Father’s Day flight. Hawking should feel right at home in the Institute's Black Hole Cafe.