Cambridge, UK, 3rd March

It looks like Stephen's graduate assistant, Sam Blackburn, has been misquoted again.  He told Kate Loveys, a Daily Mail reporter, that Stephen Hawking has no plans whatsoever to move abroad permanently.  The quote "Professor Hawking is considering a move..." is definitely false.  The University of Cambridge has this comment:

"Professor Stephen Hawking is Director of Research in the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. He will remain so in the long term. As part of his research he expects to make annual visits to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada."

Stephen hopes to visit Perimeter Institute regularly, perhaps once a year, but is not considering a permanent move.

Cambridge, UK, 27th February

Stephen was proud to receive the Cosmos Award this weekend, which he originally hoped to pick up in Pasadena, California.  Unfortunately he was not able to travel there in January, when the event was planned, so some highly distinguished speakers travelled to Cambridge, UK to present him with the award: Louis Friedman, Martin Rees, Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jim Bell, and Ann Druyan.  Upon receiving the award, Stephen talked about the importance of space travel, sparking a lively and entertaining debate between the speakers, ranging from the merits of manned versus robotic space travel, to the politics of funding space projects.