Wanted: Genius to operate Stephen Hawking' custom-built wheelchair

London, Dec 30 (ANI): Professor Stephen Hawking has posted a job advert seeking for a technical assistant to help him maintain and operate his custom-built wheelchair and the computer-controlled voice synthesiser through which he speaks.

The successful applicant will be paid a salary of around 25,000 pounds and can expect to spend about three months a year overseas with the Cambridge cosmologist and his small team of full-time carers, while he is touring abroad, the Independent reported.

Although Professor Hawking is looking for a university graduate, he makes it clear that he does not want a theoretical physics researcher.

The job is officially funded by the University of Cambridge as a research post.

"The post is more accurately described by the title 'Technical Assistant to Stephen Hawking'. It is NOT a PhD or Post-Doc position for academics looking to study physics, but a purely technical post to allow Professor Hawking to function within the physics community and as a public speaker," the job advert posted on his website read.

Professor Hawking, who suffers from motor neurone disease and is almost completely paralysed, deploys his customary humour by displaying a photograph of the complex electronics at the back of his wheelchair with the challenge: "Could you maintain this?...If your answer is 'Yes', we'd like to hear from you!"

Originally, the post of technical assistant was designed to help the physicist in those areas where he has difficulty due to his disability. However, the job has now expanded to include managing his travel itinerary, preparing his lecture graphics and dealing with enquiries from the media and the public.

A successful candidate will however also have to show that they have the ability to maintain "black box" systems with no instruction manual or technical support - which appears to be a reference to his one-off wheelchair, which has no written instructions.

The technical assistant's post will be formally advertised by the university in January and the job will start at the end of February. (ANI)