"Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind", Kitty Ferguson

Kitty Ferguson, biographer of physicist Stephen Hawking, will give an informal, non- technical talk about the experience of writing her two books about the celebrated cosmologist and also of helping Hawking edit his own “The Universe in a Nutshell”. Hawking thinks and works somewhat differently from others because he must work almost entirely in his head, and he has a practice of pulling the rug out from under his own discoveries and assertions. As he has approached his recent 70th birthday, he has devoted an increasing amount of his time in efforts to share his science and particularly the adventure of it with people without a science background and young people who may be scientists of the future. Ferguson will discuss Hawking’s place in the science community (he is not and has never claimed to be on par with Einstein), the unique contributions he is able to make, and what his legacy might be.