Stephen Hawking visited Israel and Palestine 7-15 December 2006. His visit was sponsored by the UK government. To mark the occasion, British Council Israel organised a Young Scientists event with the full and enthusiastic cooperation of the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem and the British Embassy in Tel Aviv.  For more information about his 10 day visit please check the website of the British Embassy.

On Sunday 10 September 2006 British Council Israel hosted a unique event at the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem. High school students meet Stephen Hawking, one of the best-known theoretical physicists today and author of the bestseller A Brief History of Time, and heard him talk about his life and what motivated him to pursue a career in physics. He answered students’ questions (send to him in advance) and later, at a special lunch at the Museum, heard brief talks by two winners of the Young Scientists Competition run annually by the Museum.

During the 45 minute lecture entitled To Boldly Go: My Life in Physics, Hawking explained why he chose to research cosmology “cosmology and gravitation were neglected fields that were ripe for development at that time” (in 1962)'. He talked about his condition, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, a motor neuron disease, diagnosed when he was in his early twenties. He described briefly some of the prevailing cosmological theories of the 1960s and encounters with leading physicists of the day, and conveyed beautifully how he felt about his early research and collaboration with Roger Penrose “it was a glorious feeling having a whole field virtually to ourselves”. It was in 1970 that he began work on black holes, and the rest, as we say, is history! Hawking ended the lecture by sharing with the students his enormous pleasure and excitement about scientific discoveries “there is nothing like the Eureka moment of discovering something that no one knew before. I won't compare it to sex, but it lasts longer”. The applause was deafening.

The event drew an enormous amount of interest from the press and media. The major Israel television national news stations, Channel 1, 2 and 10, as well as the Hebrew and English press and some independent international and local newswires and community television stations, were on hand to record this special meeting between the world renowned British scientist and 16-18 years old students. All television channels carried news items during their prime time evening news programmes.

The auditorium was packed with 200 students, accompanying teachers, the press and media. Due to the high demand, the 90 minute event was filmed and relayed to another area of the Museum for another 150 students and teachers, and was broadcast live on the internet, where a total of 7000 hits were recorded during the session.

Maya Halevy, Director of the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, welcomed Professor Stephen Hawking, the students and our distinguished guests , H E Mr Tom Phillips, British Ambassador to Israel, Mr Jim Buttery, Director British Council Israel, Prof Peter Hillman, Founder and Science Director of the Museum, Prof Nava Ben Zvi, Chair of the Museum, Mrs Ruth Chesin, President of the Jerusalem Foundation and Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, our extraordinary moderator who helped to  make this event the wonderful success it was.

This event is linked to the British Council’s new “Beautiful Science” initiative which aims to encourage and inspire more young people to consider a career in science. It certainly inspired the students!  Comments reveal how they felt about the man and the scientist ‘fantastic, awesome, inspiring, exciting, amazing' and 'He is as smart as Einstein', 'He is a living proof of the staggering power and capacity of the human brain', 'Prof Hawking proves that the spirit and the mind are much stronger then physical illnesses', 'His endeavour to learn more and more about the universe, in his state, leaves me in awe'.