Stephen Hawking (1942 - 2018) was a British theoretical physicist and cosmologist known for his research on black holes and the large-scale structure of the universe. [1] Working with Roger Penrose, he applied general relativity to show that the universe likely began in a singularity, and he later predicted that black holes emit radiation, now called Hawking radiation. [2] His 1988 book A Brief History of Time introduced cosmology to a mass audience and became one of the best-selling science titles ever published. [1]
Early life and education
Hawking was born in Oxford on 8 January 1942 and grew up in St Albans, where he attended St Albans School. [1] He studied physics at University College, Oxford, graduating in 1962, before moving to Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge to pursue research in cosmology. [3] Shortly after arriving in Cambridge he was diagnosed with a form of motor neurone disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and given only a few years to live, a prognosis he far outlived while continuing to work for decades. [1]
Scientific work
In the late 1960s Hawking collaborated with the mathematician Roger Penrose on the singularity theorems, using the mathematics of general relativity to argue that space and time had a beginning in the Big Bang. [2] In 1974 he made his most celebrated discovery, showing that black holes are not entirely black but emit thermal radiation as a consequence of quantum effects near their event horizons. [2] This Hawking radiation implied that black holes can lose mass and eventually evaporate, and it linked general relativity, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics in a single result. His later research addressed the quantum origin of the universe, including the no-boundary proposal developed with James Hartle. [1]
Public life and illness
As his condition progressed Hawking lost the use of his limbs and, after a tracheotomy in 1985, his voice, communicating thereafter through a computer-generated speech synthesizer that became closely associated with his public identity. [1] He held the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge from 1979 to 2009. [3] His willingness to explain physics to general readers, together with appearances in popular television, made him one of the most recognisable scientists of his time.
Legacy
Hawking received many of the highest honours in science, including the Copley Medal, the Wolf Prize in Physics and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. [1] Although he never received a Nobel Prize, largely because Hawking radiation has not been directly observed, his work reshaped the study of black holes and cosmology and inspired a generation of researchers. [2] He died in Cambridge on 14 March 2018. [3]
