Stephen Hawking Turned Down Knighthood

schliz writes "Professor Stephen Hawking has revealed that he turned down the offer of a knighthood over 10 years ago. The scientist has released correspondence showing that he was approached with the offer of a knighthood but refused it on principle. Professor Hawking has also revealed correspondence showing harsh criticism of what he sees as the UK government's mismanagement of science funding. He is particularly critical of the merger of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council and the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils."

Comments

Re:What do you get with knighthood?

[TommyMc]

as one of the best scientific minds of his generation, it's typically British to ignore him during his lifetime

Stephen Hawking is hardly "ignored". In fact, I'm struggling to think of a physicist less ignored. He's the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, has had a book stay on the British bestseller list for 5 years, and has been the subject of numerous documentaries, to name a few. If he's as well appreciated 200 years after his death as he is during his life, then he'll have been proved important.

Re:Good for him

[lattyware]

Medical Dr. vs Real Dr. is a fun one, as the majority of Medical Doctors, are not actually doctors (don't have a doctorate), and yet people often say that someone who is a doctor, but not a medical doctor, is a fake doctor, which in fact, it's the other way around.

I was told a story about a Pharmacist in a hospital who had his name - 'Dr. Bob Smith' (example) on the door. Now, the hospital forced him to take the Dr off, despite him actually having a doctorate, unlike most of the doctors who have it on their doors in the hospital, because he wasn't a medical doctor and it'd confuse people. I, personally, think that's insane.