Role model: Pavel Wilimaytis says he was struck by Gates’ “warmth, openness and distinctive charisma”. (Courtesy: Natallia Wilimaytis)

Belarusian sculptor Pavel Wilimaytis has created a portrait of the theoretical physicist Jim Gates who is based at the University of Maryland and Brown University.

Gates is best known for his work on supersymmetry and superstring theory as well as the connections between quantum physics and information theory. He is also known for his outreach in particular the PBS series The Elegant Universe .

Wilimaytis, who has been living in Saint-Jorioz in France for the past three years, has a hearing impairment and chooses people to sculpt based on the “human presence in their faces”.

“For the first eight years of his life, Pavel perceived the world outside of language,” Wilimaytis’ mother Natallia told Physics World . “Before he learned to understand words, he already knew how to feel people: their warmth and coldness, light and shadow, pain, tension, kindness or inner closedness.…