Stephen Hawking Biography, Theories and Facts.
                     Stephen Hawking: Biography, 
Theories and Facts
Who was Stephen Hawking? 
• Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist and 
cosmologist, widely considered to be one of the greatest 
scientists of his time. 
• He was the first scientist to devise a cosmology that 
married the general theory of relativity and quantum 
mechanics, and he made huge contributions to our 
understanding of black holes.
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Birth
• Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in 
Oxford, England. 
• His father, a well-known researcher in tropical medicine, 
urged his son to seek a career in medicine, but Stephen 
found biology and medicine were not exact enough. 
• Therefore, he turned to the study of mathematics and 
physics.
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Early life
• Hawking was not an outstanding student at St. Alban's 
School, nor later at Oxford University, which he entered in 
1959. 
• He was a social young man who did little schoolwork 
because he was able to grasp the essentials of a 
mathematics or physics problem quickly.
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Graduate school
• The onset of Hawking's graduate education at Cambridge 
marked a turning point in his life. It was then that he 
embarked upon the formal study of cosmology, which 
focused his study. 
• And it was then that he was first stricken with Lou Gehrig's 
disease, a weakening disease of the nervous and muscular 
system that eventually led to his total confinement in a 
wheelchair.
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Marriage
• His marriage in 1965 was an important step in his 
emotional life. Marriage gave him, he recalled, the 
determination to live and make professional progress in 
the world of science. 
• Hawking received his doctorate degree in 1966. He then 
began his lifelong research and teaching association with 
Cambridge University.
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Theory of Singularity
• Hawking made his first major contribution to science with 
his idea of singularity, a work that grew out of his 
collaboration (working relationship) with Roger Penrose. 
• A singularity is a place in either space or time at which 
some quantity becomes infinite (without an end).
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Unified field theory
• In the 1980s Hawking answered one of Einstein's 
unanswered theories, the famous unified field theory. 
• A complete unified theory includes the four main 
interactions known to modern physics. 
• The unified theory explains the conditions that were 
present at the beginning of the universe as well as the 
features of the physical laws of nature.
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Publications
• As Hawking's physical condition grew worse his intellectual 
achievements increased. He wrote down his ideas in A 
Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes.
• It sold over a million copies and was listed as the best-
selling nonfiction book for over a year.
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Publications Cont.
• In 1993 Hawking wrote Black Holes and Baby Universes 
and Other Essays, which, in addition to his scientific 
thoughts, contains chapters about Hawking's personal life. 
• He coauthored a book in 1996 with Sir Roger Penrose titled 
The Nature of Space and Time.
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Honors and commitments
• Hawking's became a fellow of the Royal Society of London 
in 1974 and five years later was named to a professorial 
chair at Cambridge University that was once held by Sir 
Isaac Newton (1642–1727). 
• He has earned a host of honorary degrees, awards, prizes, 
and lectureships from the major universities and scientific 
societies of Europe and America. 
• By the end of the twentieth century Stephen Hawking had 
become one of the best-known scientists in the world. 
• His popularity includes endorsing a wireless Internet 
connection and speaking to wheelchair-bound youth. 
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