Canada is trying to steal UK physicist Steven Hawking away from Cambridge, according to reports in today’s press.

Hawking is “mulling over” an offer to move to the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, says the Daily Telegraph, as he fears funding shortfalls in the UK are making the country a home of “dull science”. The Telegraph says Hawking has already decided to leave Cambridge after failing to gain support for a £20 million bid to expand the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology into the Hawking Institute.

Neil Turok, who is already leaving Cambridge to run the Perimeter Institute says, “Stephen has been very loyal to Cambridge – he could have gone anywhere he wanted. He plans to visit me in Ontario next year for a month or so, and we would certainly welcome him coming for longer.”

Turok himself linked his move to the state of British science funding (see Nature’s item on this from May). The institute’s director of external relations has said the door would be “wide open” for Hawking (The Record).

However the Telegraph notes that Hawking’s office has denied he will move. “He is not joining the brain drain,” said a spokesperson.

More Coverage

University told they could lose Hawking – Cambridge News