Famous British theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking said that he owes his brilliant scientific career to his teacher Dikran Tahta, who was of Armenian descent.

Dikran Tahta was Stephen Hawking’s mathematics teacher at St Albans School.

“Many teachers were boring. But not Mr Tahta,” said the theoretical physicist.

BBC reports that Stephen Hawking was speaking ahead of this weekend's award of the Global Teacher Prize.

Stephen Hawking recorded a special video commending his teacher, who died in 2006.

“His classes were lively and exciting. Everything could be debated. Together we built my first computer, it was made with electro-mechanical switches,” remembered Stephen Hawking.

“Thanks to Mr Tahta, I became a professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a position once held by Isaac Newton,” said the British scientist.

Dikran Tahta

Photo: BBC

Dikran Tahta was a descendant of an Ottoman Armenian family who settled in Manchester after the First World War. Much of his childhood, and the influence of his Armenian religious upbringing, is reflected upon in his penultimate book Ararat Associations, in which he notes how his parents were keen for their children to have an English education, yet made sure that they spoke Armenian at home.

In his obituary, The Guardian described Tahta as “one of the outstanding mathematics teachers of his generation”.

Mediamax spoke to astrophysicist of Armenian descent Garik Israelian, who lives in Spain. He noted that during Stephen Hawking Medals launch ceremony in London in December 2015, the  scientist told him that he owed Dikran Tahta a lot. Stephen Hawking also remarked that Dikran Tahta’s daughter visited him several years ago.

Stephen Hawking Medals initiated by Garik Israelian in 2015 recognize the work of those helping to promote the public awareness of science through different disciplines such as music, arts and cinema.

Each year, three Medals will be awarded at the STARMUS International Science and Arts Festival in Tenerife that unites the best scientists and musicians, and “is a perfect platform to debate the future of humanity”.

The Stephen Hawking Medals will award Science Communicator of the Year in three categories:

- Scientific community;

- Artistic community;

- Film community.