With Freeman Dyson
I first met Professor Dyson in 2007 when I was a member in the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. Professor Dyson inspired me to start doing research on an Englishman named Frank Thompson. Thompson was Dyson's schoolmate at Winchester in the 1930s, but died in June of 1944 in Bulgaria. Frank Thompson was the elder brother of the great social historian E.P. Thompson and the university sweetheart of the writer Iris Murdoch. He was parachuted into Bulgarian-occupied Serbia in January 1944 where he was supposed to organize supply drops to the partisans fighting against the Nazi-allied Bulgarian monarchy. Thompson's story is a fascinating window onto the Balkan partisan resistance movements during WWII, and the contemporary historical memory of those who fought with them.
This year Professor Dyson will turn 90-years-old, and the Institute is having a big celebration in his honor at the end of September. I won't be able to make it down for the event, but I am eternally grateful to Professor Dyson for all of his encouragement and support with regard to my research on Frank Thompson. Dyson is one of the most gracious and kind academics I have ever had the pleasure to meet.