Stephen Hawking

Background

Stephen Hawking was a British physicist and cosmologist. He was born in Oxford, England, to a family of physicians. In 1959, he got into Oxford University, where he studied physics. He found academic work to be extremely easy. After completing his undergraduate studies in 1962, he began his graduate studies at Cambridge. At Cambridge University, he studied applied mathematics and theoretical physics, and his studies focused on cosmology and general relativity. One year after he began his graduate studies (1963), Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease. His physicians didn’t expect him to live for long and the doctors believed he would die within two years of his diagnosis. Hawking, however, lived with the disease for more than 50 years.

His scientific contributions include the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, which is often called Hawking Radiation. Hawking Radiation generated many controversies but, eventually, the discovery became widely accepted towards the end of the 1970s. In collaboration with Roger Penrose, Hawking also made significant findings on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity. Another significant work he produced was in collaboration with Jim Hartle was the Hartle–Hawking state; a study, which proposed that the concept of “a beginning of time” is meaningless.

Most of Hawking’s wealth came from the sale of books, which discussed his theories and cosmology. Some of his books achieved huge commercial success. His bestseller was “A Brief History of Time.” This outstanding researcher lived a rich and full life and he did all this despite living with a disability.