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Cosmic Talk

Lucy Hawking, the daughter of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, visited Highgate Junior School on Thursday 8 October 2009.

Ms Hawking took an informative and evocative approach in her talk to Year 5 and 6 students about the inspiration behind her novels, George’s Secret Key to the Universe and George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt; adventure stories about a boy called George who finds a way to slip through a computer-generated portal and travels beyond the solar system.

Written with her father, Stephen Hawking and his former Ph.D. Student, Christophe Galfard, George’s Secret Key has been translated into 38 languages and published in 43 countries. George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt, a look across the universe for signs of life followed in 2009.

Their third children's story will be about what happened at the Big Bang.

In April 2008, Hawking participated in NASA’s 50th Birthday lecture series, contributing a talk on children and science education. Based on her experiences in touring worldwide with George’s Secret Key, giving talks for children on physics and astronomy, the lecture highlighted the need to engage children in science at an early age. Hawking won the Sapio Prize for popularizing science, awarded in Rome in October 2008.

She is vice president of the National Star College, a residential foundation which provides care and education for young adults with complex and multiple disabilities and a Friend of the Autism Research Centre.

Ms Hawking read French and Russian at the University of Oxford before commencing work as a journalist. She has written for The Times, the London Evening Standard, the Daily Mail and The Telegraph.  VN

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