This past weekend, without much fanfare, Stephen Hawking stepped down as Lucasian Professor of Mathematik at Cambridge. This is probably the most famous “chair” in all academe, and Hawking has sat in it for the past three decades. The position is 346 years old, and has been occupied by such luminaries as Dirac, Stokes, and most impressively, Sir Isaac Newton himself.
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The primary reason for Hawking’s resignation is apparently not his recent health travails. Rather, it is customary for the Lucasian Professor to retire at the age of 67. And not even Hawking messes with centuries of tradition.
The big question now: who will follow in Hawking’s footsteps?
October 7th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
I’ll do it. Is it well paid?
October 8th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I think a lot of people are expecting a high energy physicist to be the next Lucasian Professor, but I would like to see someone with a bit of a different focus. Who will be the next Stokes? Why not someone like Mahadevan? http://www.seas.harvard.edu/softmat/
October 8th, 2009 at 3:30 am
What are the odds that they’ll choose someone with a similar amount of public name recognition as Hawking?
also, who will follow in Hawking’s footsteps?
boooooo
October 8th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Yes, you should have asked who will take over Hawking’s Chair?
October 8th, 2009 at 5:03 am
He’s not retiring, he’s just got bigger and better things to work on!
October 8th, 2009 at 6:36 am
Stephen Wolfram!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wolfram
October 8th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Newton said
“Truth is the offspring of silence and unbroken mediation”.
He suffered from what is now called the Einstein syndrome. He could get by with not much social interaction. The isolation that he experienced at Cambridge probably was a great help to him in formulating those pivotal ideas that he presented in Principia. Dirac who held the Lucasian chair for a long time also suffered from the Einstein syndrome, which for a theoretician in physics is really an asset and not a handicap.
Having a physical handicap is not the same thing as having the Einstein syndrome. Thus, I hope when they select the next candidate for the Lucasian chair they stay away from a physically handicapped person, who may have quite good social skills, and select someone who is a right proper recluse. We need a gifted theorists i.e. recluse in that chair–because physics with with 95% of the mass of the universe missing is in a right proper mess.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Shurely shome mishtake?
It should obviously be medication .
October 8th, 2009 at 8:07 am
@greg 3 & Peter 4. Both the opening and closing lines are metaphors. Hawking is superhuman; it’s astounding the degree to which he has overcome his handicap. This was supposed to be my subtle way of recognizing this. Fail?
October 8th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Does it have to be somebody British?
October 8th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Sounds better than applying to grad school! Where do I apply? Do they require GREs?
October 8th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Most chair-holders have been professors at Cambridge. But if an outsider is chosen, surely the leading candidate is Ed Witten at IAS.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Does an office come with the chair?
October 8th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I’m available.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:32 am
The job was advertised on the Cambridge website last year. It was quite funny to see it. I mulled about putting in an application just so that I can say I applied for Hawking’s job (I didn’t, sadly).
Good luck to whomever who steps in.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am
[...] Mathematics: perhaps I ought to apply for this job? [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Does Witten even want the job? It seems like the IAS is a better place for him and he doesn’t seem to care too much about the fame and prestige that having the chair would have. If he wanted it I’m sure they would give it to him, but you could pretty much say that for any position in math or physics.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
@daniel 9 – I don’t know if I’d say subtle. I appreciated the humor, it just seemed as if there was more in the way of humor than metaphorical indication of superhumaness. I totally respect what he has done as a physicist and as a person. But just remember, like Newton before him, he stood on the shoulders of giants.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I find it funnier that the opening for the job was posted in the classifieds of Physics Today or something last year. Yeah, I’ll be sure and send in my CV and get some recommendations for that job
.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
It actually might be interesting to hear the thoughts of folks in the Biz on this: does Cambridge gain much by openly soliciting applications, rather than adopting a “we’ll call you” approach? Would we expect the Lucasian Professor to be a sufficiently well-celebrated physicist already?
October 8th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I hereby volunteer to take over the Chair. I don’t know much about Mathematik, but I have a great deal of experience at sitting down.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hey look. There is an afterlife:
http://www.hulu.com/paranormal-tv
October 8th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Hawking was very young and doing great things when he got this job. Great as my admiration for Witten may be, neither of these things can be said of him now. I hope it will go to someone like one of the young people who work on applications of AdS/CFT to the quark-gluon plasma; something like that where there is hope, however small, that exciting things will emerge from it.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:08 am
[...] Shared The next [Stephen] Hawking. [...]
October 9th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Who will get the Lucasian? I like to nominate Sean. After all, Sean says time is not fundamental, and thus deserves a timeless position. Thus awarded, he will have all the time in the world to write a paper to prove it.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Barack Obama
October 9th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I nominate Al Gore or Obama.
Seriously.
I have to think that y’all know you what you’re talking about in all things, no?
October 10th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Timon is right. You are only standing on Newtons shoulders if you are furthering science. What has Hawking done in the past handfulls of years? I can make a fancy letter head on my computer if that is all you are looking for.
October 12th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
friendship, Misha.
October 13th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Nima Arkani-Hamed would be an excellent choice.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:16 am
“Nima Arkani-Hamed would be an excellent choice.”
I was thinking the same thing, he fits the bill of a relatively young and capable theorist. He’s also got a certain level of pop-culture-ness already going for him. Putting my own biases against string theory aside, of course.
Good chance they will tap another Cambridge prof to move offices though.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
[...] we recently noted, Stephen Hawking has stepped down from the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge. The chair didn’t stay [...]