Dear Peter,
I’m the woman at the bar reading a book on astrophysics and drinking an Irish Coffee.
If I may suggest: stop looking for the ideal woman. Why? Because she is looking for the ideal man. Do you get it now? They don’t exist.
Instead make friends with women you meet. After all, if you do marry one of them you’ll have someone fairly agreable with which to live.
If all your relationship is based upon is her attractiveness and your libido, well here’s a hint - neither will last. The world is filled with beautiful divorced women whose ex-husbands think they’re both stupid and difficult.
Better to marry a woman who, if she were a man, would be your best friend. Looks and libido soon fade; friendships tend to endure.
I'm not sure that approach will work for him either, since in my experience most young scientists want to talk about their incomprehensible work aaaaalll the time, and their best friends tend also to be scientists working in the same field so they can understand each other.
He's an attractive lad, but his problems are not unique or surprising. The more educated and intelligent one is, the fewer potential mates will be available. This young man is probably in the top one-tenth of one percent of the population in terms of intelligence, so there aren't going to be many people, male or female, who can keep up with him intellectually. If he's like almost every other hard-science PhD candidate, he probably obsesses about his research 24-7-365 and might not be able to talk about anything else at this point in his life, which will make him a dead bore as well as generally inexperienced compared to other young men of his age.
But eventually most of these guys end up getting married to somebody who supports and tolerates their work.
Single, celibate, and sane work well also.
/johnny