u/JazzyMcgee

I hope this is an appropriate question for the subreddit, I checked the rules and I think it’s okay?

I’m not a physicist myself, so I’m looking for some advice from people who understand the academic world better than I do.

A close friend of mine has just completed his PhD at Cambridge in physics, specialising in nanotechnology. I’d like to get him something genuinely memorable to celebrate it.

I had the idea of getting a copy of his PhD thesis signed by a prominent scientist in his field ideally someone whose work is relevant to the subject of his thesis, or someone who would be particularly meaningful for a physicist working in that area.

As someone who is outside academia, I have absolutely no idea how realistic this is or how I would go about approaching someone.

If I can identify an appropriate scientist, is it acceptable to contact them through their university email address (if thats even something thats publically available)?

I’m not necessarily looking for the biggest household name (if there are any in this field, in my brief research I think the main one that’s alive was called Sumio Iijima).

I can also give more information about the subject of his PhD (or send the link to the thesis of his I found on Google Scholar, but I’m not sure if thats a good idea? Im very out of my depth).

If getting his thesis signed is completely unrealistic I’d be interested in alternative ideas along the same lines.

I realise this is probably a slightly unusual request. I just wanna surprise my best mate with something that recognises how much work went into getting his PhD, and I figured physicists themselves would be the best people to ask.

Thanks for your help everyone, feel free to tell me to kick rocks if you don’t want this post here.

EDIT:
Thanks so much to everyone, it seems this idea is likely a no go and would in fact be, quite cringe.

But you’ve all given me much better ideas, thanks so much!
If you were interested his thesis was something about “Ferroelectric oxides in thin films”.
Not that it makes much sense to me.