‘DISASTROUS’ CUTS

London, July 16: Prof. Stephen Hawking is “mulling over” an invitation to quit Britain because government policy is making the country the home of “dull science”, colleagues have said.

Last month, the 66-year-old scientist accused the government of making “disastrous” £80 million cuts to research funding. Now he is said to be seriously considering an offer to join a fellow academic, who is leaving Cambridge University this autumn to head up a well-funded Canadian science institute.

Prof. Neil Turok, a leading authority on mathematical physics, said “the door is open” for Prof. Hawking to join him permanently at the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, which has received £300 million in funding.

The physicist decided to leave Cambridge after failing to persuade university authorities, research councils and sponsors to give £20 million to expand the university’s Centre for Theoretical Cosmology — which he currently heads — into a Hawking Institute.

By comparison, the Perimeter Institute, set up seven years ago by Mike Lazaridis, creator of the BlackBerry hand-held device, has garnered private donations of £150 million.