One of the greatest minds of the last hundred years and, as his friend Oliver Sacks says, he still possesses a mind that is "so open and flexible."
One thing I like about Dyson is that he punctures our contemporary obsession with "qualifications". A man universally failed as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th Century, "infinitely smart" in another person's description, not only does not possess a PhD, he hasn't even got a bachelor of science degree.
His only qualification is a bachelor of arts.
He's also an anthropogenic climate change sceptic and this has led to completely predictable personal abuse being hurled his way. Though I find it interesting that one of the academics making snide comments about him because of this isn't a climate scientist, but rather a law professor.
It shows how the fashionable topic of climate change has been colonised and infested with all manner of non-scientific and pseudo-academic hangers on, all trying to get a piece of the action. There's an Australian university which has a climate change law centre!
If our universities have money to waste on such pointless and useless endeavours, then I really don't think we are getting value for the huge amounts of public money currently poured into them.
Anyhoo, here is the profile of Dyson by The New York Times Magazine.
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