Enlarge / Stephen Hawking speaks via satellite during the Science Channel portion of the 2010 Television Critics Association Press Tour at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, California. (credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) I first met Stephen Hawking in March 2003, when the most famous scientist in the world visited Texas. For a young science reporter at the Houston Chronicle, an invitation to interview Hawking during a stop in College Station rated as a real coup. Reporters never like to submit their questions to a subject in advance; indeed it is something I often refuse to do.