Recalling the visit of a lifetime

Looking back in wonder: Hawking surrounded by well-wishers during his visit in Kuala Lumpur in 1994. Front, from left to right, Dr Mahathir, Hawking and Tun Ahmad Sarji. The writer is on the right.

THE unexpected news of the passing of Stephen Hawking was a shock to us.

In 1994 when Dr Augustine Ong, president of the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS), was conferred the PSM (making him a Tan Sri), we established the Tan Sri Augustine Ong Fellowship Trust to provide fellowships and conduct lectures by leading scientists of Nobel Prize repute.