I don't know whether his popular science work is plagiarized or not but about his thesis, it seems somewhat stupid To punish him

So many things in physics have to be written in a very specific manner , to convey the meaning of the precise concepts being used. in such cases, it is a very common practice to copy the sentences used before, in order to ensure that everyone understands the meaning in a precise manner.

So then to call it plagiarism doesn't make any sense

1. The committee that examined his work in depth didn't reach the same conclusion as you

2. If you need to use the exact same phrase as someone else, then you should cite them

He doesn't have a PhD in physics but in philosophy of Sciences. So he didn't plagiarize physics but philosophy.