Biography Of Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England. When he was eight, his family moved to St. Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At the age of eleven, Stephen went to St. Albans School and then on to University College, Oxford, his father's alma mater. Stephen wanted to study Mathematics, but it was not available at University College, so he pursued Physics instead. It came so easy to him that after three years, he was awarded a first-class honors degree in Natural Science. Stephen was diagnosed with ALS, a form of Motor Neurone Disease, shortly after his 21st birthday.
Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, a branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of the universe, as there was no one working in that field at Oxford at the time. After gaining his Ph.D., he became first a Research Fellow, and later, on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973, Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge in 1979, and held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1979 until 2009. This prestigious academic post was founded in 1663 with money left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas, who had been a Member of Parliament for the University. The first person to hold this position was Isaac Barrow; then in 1669, Isaac Newton was elected. Stephen is still an active part of Cambridge University and retains an office at the Department for Applied Math and Theoretical Physics. His title is now “Director of Research” at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.
Stephen Hawking studied the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose, he showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated that it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. Hawking discovered one consequence of such a unification was that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit radiation, eventually evaporate, and disappear. He also estimated that the universe has no boundary in time. This implies that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.
His scientific publications include The Large Scale Structure of Space-time with G.F.R. Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W. Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W. Israel. Stephen Hawking published three popular books: A Brief History of Time (his bestseller), Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, and most recently in 2010, The Grand Design.
Professor Hawking holds twelve honorary degrees. He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982 and was nominated to the "Order of the Companions of Honour” by the Prime Minister in 1989. He is also the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes, is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
In spite of being wheelchair-bound and dependent on a computerized voice system for communication, he continues to combine family life (he has three children and three grandchildren) and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive program of travel and public lectures. He still hopes to make it into space one day.
Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, a branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of the universe, as there was no one working in that field at Oxford at the time. After gaining his Ph.D., he became first a Research Fellow, and later, on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973, Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge in 1979, and held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1979 until 2009. This prestigious academic post was founded in 1663 with money left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas, who had been a Member of Parliament for the University. The first person to hold this position was Isaac Barrow; then in 1669, Isaac Newton was elected. Stephen is still an active part of Cambridge University and retains an office at the Department for Applied Math and Theoretical Physics. His title is now “Director of Research” at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.
Stephen Hawking studied the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose, he showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated that it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. Hawking discovered one consequence of such a unification was that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit radiation, eventually evaporate, and disappear. He also estimated that the universe has no boundary in time. This implies that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.
His scientific publications include The Large Scale Structure of Space-time with G.F.R. Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W. Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W. Israel. Stephen Hawking published three popular books: A Brief History of Time (his bestseller), Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, and most recently in 2010, The Grand Design.
Professor Hawking holds twelve honorary degrees. He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982 and was nominated to the "Order of the Companions of Honour” by the Prime Minister in 1989. He is also the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes, is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
In spite of being wheelchair-bound and dependent on a computerized voice system for communication, he continues to combine family life (he has three children and three grandchildren) and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive program of travel and public lectures. He still hopes to make it into space one day.