Venerable physicist leaves UK

Neil Turok, one of Britain's foremost theoretical physicists, has decided to
leave Cambridge University and take his talents to Canada after failing to
attract funds to set up a scientific institute honouring Stephen Hawking.
And, as part of the fall-out, Hawking, who is Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at Cambridge, is considering joining Turok (pictured) at his new billet,
the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, for "two or three months a year".

According to a report in the Sunday Times, Turok spent several years
begging university authorities to fund an expansion of the Cambridge-based Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, which he heads. If he had been successful - and he needed only £20m - he planned re-naming it The Hawking Institute in honour of Britain's best-known scientist, and making it a global hub for advanced physics in Britain.

But he failed, and Turok blames the government which, he says, has neither funded nor managed science properly. He said: "Over the years it has become increasingly clear that British politicians understand very little of how science works and of its value for the country and its economy."

He contrasts his failure to raise £20m here with the £75m poured into the
Perimeter Institute by Mike Lazaridis, creator of the BlackBerry, or the
£50m invested by the Canadian authorities.