Stephen William Hawking

Stephen William Hawking

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical physicist whose theory of exploding black holes drew upon both relativity theory and quantum mechanics.
• Hawking worked primarily in the field of general relativity and particularly on the physics of black holes.
• In the early 1960s Hawking contracted Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, an incurable degenerative neuromuscular disease.

• Hawking had a rare early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, "ALS", or Lou Gehrig's disease), that gradually paralysed him over the decades
• He continued to work despite the disease’s progressively disabling effects.
• His 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.

Notable Accolades

Order of the Companions of Honour

• The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms.

Order of the British Empire

• The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the Civil service.

Fellow of the Royal Society

• Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society judges to have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science"

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

• Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) judges to have made outstanding achievements related to the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

Notable Positions

• In 1974 the Royal Society elected him one of its youngest fellows.
• He became professor of gravitational physics at Cambridge in 1977, and in 1979 he was appointed to Cambridge’s Lucasian professorship of mathematics, a post once held by Isaac Newton.
• Established in 1663, the position has only been held by 14 people, including Sir Isaac Newton.

Popular books

• A Brief History of Time (1988)
• Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993)
• The Universe in a Nutshell (2001)
• On the Shoulders of Giants (2002)
• God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History (2005)
• The Dreams That Stuff Is Made of: The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics and How They Shook the Scientific World (2011)
• My Brief History (2013)
• Hawking published his book “A Brief History of Time” in 1988, which has sold more than 10 million copies

Notable Awards    

• The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is the highest civilian award of the United States.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -