When Thomas Hertog was first summoned to Stephen Hawking's office in the late 1990s, there was an instant connection between the young researcher and the legendary physicist.
When Thomas Hertog was first summoned to Stephen Hawking's office in the late 1990s, there was an instant connection between the young Belgian researcher and the legendary British theoretical physicist. "Something clicked between us," Hertog said. That connection would continue even as Hawking's debilitating disease ALS robbed him of his last ways to communicate, allowing…