Go Compare star Stephen Hawking sees birthday celebrated in style thanks to Intel
Professor Stephen Hawking, a name you’ll recognise as the star of car insurance firm Go Compare’s latest advertising campaign (oh, and yeah, the theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and greatest living mind of our times) has seen in his 70h birthday with a sweet gift from Intel.
The chip giant presented the science genius with a one-off 300mm custom silicon wafer using its 32nm manufacturing process, inscribing the message “Happy Birthday Stephen Hawking” hundreds of times. This required nano-scale copper lines for letters ten times narrower than a human hair.
“This is a very special gift for an extraordinary scientist and an extraordinary man,” said Professor Martin Curley, Intel Vice President and Director of Intel Labs Europe, as he presented the award.
“Professor Hawking’s ground-breaking scientific contributions and his remarkable resilience are an inspiration to us all.”
As well as highlighting that Hawking’s Centre for Theoretical Cosmology uses a Cosmos Mk IX with Intel inside, Intel are also working with Hawking to improve his communications. Suffering from motor neurone disease, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the scientist to express himself, even with the aid of his electronic voice.
Here’s that Go Compare advert, which, admittedly, is pretty darn funny:
