- Stephen Hawking

STEPHEN HAWKING

Introduction: Stephen Hawking is British theoretical physicist, who presently serves as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He has been conducting research in fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, since many years. He is known throughout the world, for his contributions in context of black holes. During his career, which spans over more than 40 years, he has put forward numerous theories and also written a number of books, with the aim of helping the common man understand science. Hawking is disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Stephen Hawking was born as ‘Stephen William Hawking’, on 8th January 1942, in Oxford. He is the son of Frank Hawking, a research biologist, and Isobel Hawking. The eldest of the three children of his parents, he had two sisters - Philippa and Mary. Along with that, he also had an adopted brother, Edward. Hawking’s parents had a home in North London. However, because of London being under attack by the Luftwaffe, they moved to Oxford, a much safer location, while Isobel was pregnant with Stephen.Following the birth of Stephen, Hawking family moved back to its home in North London. In London, Frank headed the division of parasitology, at the National Institute for Medical Research. Hawking and his family moved to St Albans in Hertfordshire, in 1950, when he was around 8 years old. There, he attended St Albans High School for Girls, between 1950 and 1953. The reason was this was the fact that during that time, boys were educated at Girls school till the age of 10. After he became 11 years old, Hawking started attending St Albans School.

Through his schooling, Hawking was a good, but not exceptionally brilliant, student. However, he always displayed an interest in science. After passing high school, he enrolled himself at University College, Oxford, and chose physics as his subject, since mathematic was not offered. During that time, Hawking showed interest in thermodynamics, relativity and quantum mechanics. He received his B.A. degree from Oxford University, in the year 1962, after which he enrolled for studying astronomy. Since Oxford had an observatory equipped only for studying sunspots and he was more interested in the theoretical aspects, Hawking decided to leave the university. Instead, he joined Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he engaged in the study of theoretical astronomy and cosmology. Soon after, he started developing symptoms of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). It was only after his disease stabilized that Hawking returned to working on his Ph.D., with the help of his doctoral tutor, Dennis William Sciama.

CAREER

After getting his PhD, Hawking became first, a Research Fellow, and later, held the post of a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. In 1974, Hawking was elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society. Eight years down the line, in 1982, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In the year 1989, he became a Companion of Honour. Presently, he is serving as a member of the ‘Board of Sponsors’ of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Hawking’s first marriage was with Jane Wilde, a language student. The couple had three children and stayed together till 1991. The main reasons for separation were the increasing disability of Hawking, along with the pressures of his fame. In 1995, he married his nurse, Elaine Mason, the ex-wife of David Mason, designer of the first version of Hawking’s talking computer. In October 2006, he filed for divorce. Hawking’s daughter Lucy Hawking is a novelist. His son, Robert Hawking immigrated to the United States. He is married and also has a child, George Edward Hawking.

ILLNESS:

Hawking has a motor neuron disease (MND) that deteriorates his upper and lower motor neurons. Typical forms of MND include ALS (aka Lou Gherig's disease), progressive lateral sclerosis (PLS), bulbar palsy's (which are diseases that specifically affect the corticobulbar tracts), and progressive muscular atrophy. It has been speculated that Hawking has ALS, but this would be an extraordinarily rare case of ALS, due to the fact that most people diagnosed with ALS live ~ 14 months from diagnosis to death. Some people live anywhere between 2-5 years with the disease. Hawking has been dealing with his condition for over 40 years, so the path physiology involved in his disease is markedly different from typical case presentations, which are very insidious and rapidly progressive. Saying Hawking has a variant of ALS would be more accurate

On 8th January 2007, during his 65th birthday celebrations, Hawking announced that he planned to go on a zero-gravity flight. He intended to do this as a preparation for a sub-orbital spaceflight in 2009, on Virgin Galactic’s space service. On 26th April 2007, he went on a zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet" of Zero Gravity Corporation. During the flight, he experienced weightlessness eight times. With this, Hawking became the first quadriplegic to float free in a weightless state. It was also first time in 40 years that he moved freely beyond the limits of his wheelchair. He was not charged any fee for the flight.

Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Things:

Star Trek: Deep Space 9Anything coin-operated.Pulp.Racism.The Kardashians.Movies about sports. (In particular, 1988

baseball romantic comedy Bull Durham)Sand traps.Fresno, CA.When sandwiches aren’t cut in half.Rap music.

Theory of singularity

big bang theoryblack holes theory

Hawking's continuing examination of the nature of black holes led to two important discoveries. The first, that black holes can give off heat, opposed the claim that nothing could escape from a black hole. The second concerned the size of black holes. As originally conceived, black holes were immense in size because they were the end result of the collapse of gigantic stars. Hawking suggested the existence of millions of mini-black holes formed by the force of the original big bang explosion

His Latest Book

Professor Hawking's latest book, 'A Briefer History of Time'.From the book's blurb:

"Stephen Hawking's worldwide bestseller, A Brief History of Time, has been a landmark volume in scientific writing. Its author's engaging voice is one reason, and the compelling subjects he addresses is another: the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, the history and future of the Universe. but it is also true that in the years since its publication, readers have repeatedly told Professor Hawking of their great difficulty in understanding some of the book's most important concepts.

"This is the origin of and the reason for A Briefer History of Time: its author's wish to make its content accessible to readers - as well as to bring it up to date with the latest scientific observations and findings."

Stephen Hawking – His WorksAntimatterThe Big BangBlack Holes  •Do Black Holes Really Exist?  •Can Anything Escape From a Black Hole?Cosmic Background RadiationCosmic RaysCosmological ConstantDark Matter   •Hot and Cold Dark Matter    •Machos   •Neutrinos   •WimpsE=mc2GravityHubble’s LawImaginary TimeNebulaePlanetary MotionQuarksQuasarsRadioactivitySchrödinger’s CatSpectroscopy and Red shiftSingularitySuperstringsThe Uncertainty PrincipleWormholes

AWARDS

1975 Eddington Medal 1976 Hughes Medal of

the Royal Society 1979 Albert Einstein

Medal 1982 Order of the

British Empire (Commander)

1985 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society

1986 Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

1988 Wolf Prize in Physics

1989 Prince of Asturias Awards in Concord

1989 Companion of Honour

1999 [9] Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society

2003 Michelson Morley Award of Case Western Reserve University

2006 [10] Copley Medal of the Royal Society

Conclusion

Stephen Hawking whocame from nowherereached the universe withhardwork and patience.Even though he haddisabilities he tried hard toprove things which could notbe done by normal humans.He is a perfect role model forthe students of the 21st

century.