Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018)

Hawking was born in Oxford into a family of doctors. In October 1959, aged 17, he began his university education in Oxford, where he received a first-class BA degree in physics. In October 1962, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where, in March 1966, he obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology. 

In 1963, at age 21, Hawking was diagnosed with an early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease that gradually, over decades, paralysed him.  After the loss of his speech, he communicated through a speech-generating device initially through the use of a handheld switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. 

Hawking’s scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.  

His book A Brief History of Time appeared on the Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC‘s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He died in 2018 at the age of 76, after having motor neurone disease for more than 50 years.