Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was an extraordinary English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and best‑selling author whose work reshaped our understanding of black holes, the early universe, and quantum gravity, making him one of the most celebrated scientists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in Oxford on 8 January 1942 to a medical family, he entered University College, Oxford at seventeen and earned a first‑class BA in physics before moving to Trinity Hall, Cambridge for his PhD under Dennis Sciama, where he completed his thesis on expanding universes in 1966. At the age of twenty‑one he received a devastating diagnosis of motor neurone disease, yet his determination allowed him to continue groundbreaking research, leading to the 1974 discovery of Hawking radiation, which proved that black holes can emit particles and eventually evaporate. His collaboration with Roger Penrose produced seminal singularity theorems, and together they showed that the universe likely began from a singularity, a concept that sparked intense debate and earned Hawking a place among the most influential physicists. From 1979 to 2009 he held the prestigious Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge, while also serving as director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology and maintaining visiting positions at institutions such as Caltech and the Perimeter Institute. Beyond academia, Hawking authored A Brief History of Time, a bestseller that stayed on the Sunday Times list for 237 weeks and introduced complex cosmological ideas to a global audience, followed by The Universe in a Nutshell and Brief Answers to the Big Questions. His public profile included appearances on television, collaborations with artists, and advocacy for disability rights, climate action, and the future of humanity, earning him awards ranging from the Copley Medal to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hawking’s legacy endures through his scientific contributions, popular works, and the inspiration he provides to scholars and people living with disabilities worldwide.