Stephen Hawking left an 'inspirational impact' in Sudbury with visits to SNOLAB

Stephen Hawking's influence and impact are being felt by scientists in Sudbury's research community.

Hawking, who lived for more than five decades with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, died at his home in Cambridge, England on Tuesday.

• Stephen Hawking dead at 76

Nigel Smith, the head ofSNOLAB, said Hawking's bookA Brief History of Timereaffirmed his decision to pursue the study of physics.

"It really energized people because it put the questions that we were trying to address into relatively accessible terms," Smith said.

"And so for somebody who was himself fairly early in my career at the time, I think reading a book like that gave you that feeling that you know, 'yeah, this is the right sort of science.'"

A Brief History of Timebecame an international bestseller, making Hawking one of science's biggest celebrities since Albert Einstein.

"At the time, it was very unique," Smith said. "It was putting out new ideas about cosmology and addressing the research threads Stephen was working on."

Hawking followed upA Brief History of Time in 2001 with the more accessible sequel The Universe in a Nutshell, updating readers on concepts like super gravity, naked singularities and the possibility of an 11-dimensional universe.

A visit to SNOLAB

Back in 2012, Hawking visitedSNOLAB, Sudbury's neutrino observatory, which is located twokilometersunderground at Sudbury's Creighton Mine.

On his visit Hawking said he hoped he raised the profile of science, and showed that physics is not a mystery and can be understood by most people.

"I believe everyone can, and should, have a broad picture of how the universe operates and our place in it," Hawking said.

"I want to encourage the next generation of great thinkers and innovators to pursue challenging accepted thinking."

'You knew you were in the presence of someone brilliant'

But Hawking's visit to the neutrino observatory wasn't the first time Smith met the star physicist.

In the 1980s, at a research conference on cosmology and astronomy in the U.K., Smith, who was researching dark matter, had the opportunity to share a stage with Hawking, who had already established his reputation in scientific circles.

"I think many of us have that imposter syndrome feeling, where you feel this is an area where the work you're doing doesn'tcompare to your peers," Smith said.

"Stephen really exacerbated that feeling. You knew you were in the presence of someone brilliant and doing great work."