Turkish scientist hosts Stephen Hawking at Harvard

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Turkish materials scientist Canan Dağdeviren hosted famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking at Harvard University on April 26.

“It was truly phenomenal to host one of my heroes, Prof. Hawking at Harvard Society this evening,” Dağdeviren said in a tweet.

“It was truly my privilege to listen Prof. Hawking! Let the stars shine deeply,” she added.

Hawking’s lecture at Harvard focused on “his research into black holes and the information paradox.”

The information paradox suggests that “physical information is permanently lost in such holes, a controversial notion that violates the scientific tenet that information about a system from time can be used to understand its state at any other time,” Hawking said.

“It is said that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, and nowhere is that more true than in the case of black holes,” Hawking said during his lecture. “Black holes are stranger than anything dreamed up by science fiction writers, but they are clearly matters of science fact.”


Who is scientist Canan Dağdeviren?

Dağdeviren is a junior fellow at Harvard University who also work as a post-doctoral associate at McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her passion is “to make valuable contributions to medical science and to advanced engineering devices,” she said on her personal website.

Born in 1985, she was one of three Turkish women on MIT’s “35 Innovators Under 35” list in 2015.

“I am now working on a needle-shaped battery to help people with Parkinson’s disease or other brain diseases. Last week, we conducted tests on monkeys and they were successful. The device can reach remote sections of the brain and detect injured cells. We will then be able to cure those cells with different medicines,” Dağdeviren said previously in an interview.

“Currently we take medicine through our mouths or veins. This has an unnecessary impact on our bodies. However, we can access part of the brain with this thin device and medicate a patient in a controlled manner,” she said.