PM meets Stephen Hawking

Famedphysicist Stephen Hawking metwith Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Waterloo, Ont., on Tuesday.

Hawking perhaps the most famous living scientist listened as Harper announced a new post-doctoral scholarship program for Canada during a visit to the Perimeter Institute.The program, a followup on a commitment in the Marchfederal budget,will award 70 fellowships a year and have a total value of $45 million over five years.

We must invest in the people and ideas that will produce tomorrow's breakthroughs," Harper said. "The Banting post-doctoral fellowships will give scholars in research institutions across the country the support they need to explore and develop their ideas to the fullest."

Hawking is conducting research at the institute for theoretical physics through July.

Speaking through electronic means, Hawking thanked Harper for thesupportfor the sciences and said he was "delighted" with the scholarship program.

"By investing in young scientists, it is setting an example which other countries would do well to follow," Hawking said.

The institute,a public-private partnership in scientific research and educational outreach,receives funding from the Canadian and Ontario governments and individual donors.

Hawking retired from Cambridge University in England last year at age 67.

The $45 million for post-doctoral scholarships was allocatedin the federal budget in March.

Harper thanked Hawking for coming to the institute and praised him as an "inspiration" to Canadian scientists.

Hawking was to have visited the southwestern Ontario institute last summer as a research chair but illness forced him to cancel.

Last October, the institute named a new wing at its facility in downtown Waterloo after Hawking.