How Stephen Hawking Helped Elevate Canada’s Science Profile

Theoretical physicist professor Stephen Hawking gives a lecture in the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife on Sept. 23, 2014. Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images

TORONTO—Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who died early today at his home in Cambridge, England at the age of 76, elevated Canada’s profile in the physics community in 2008 when he accepted a research post at the country’s “crown jewel” of theoretical physics study.

Hawking took on the title of distinguished research chair at the prestigious Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., and visited the facility in the summer of 2010 and again in 2012.