The End of an Era: Interesting Facts about Stephen Hawking
By James Hughes
Birth
The theoretical physicist was born exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo in Oxford, England. Despite having a house in north London, his parents chose to raise children in Oxford because it was considered a safer place to have babies during World War II.
Education
After studying in St Albans School in a town, which was about 20 miles north of London, Hawkings went on to his father’s old college, University College, Oxford (1952).He wanted to pursue Mathematics, but the subject wasn’t available in the university. Hence, he followed his , took up physics even though his father wanted his to pursue medicine. After being dedicated for three years, he was awarded the first class honours degree in natural science.
Awards and Honorary Degrees
Professor Stephen Hawking has thirteen honorary degrees. He was awarded CBE (1982), Companion of Honour (1989) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009). He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes like like Fundamental Physics prize (2013), Copley Medal (2006) and the Wolf Foundation prize (1988). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Personal Life
At the age of 21, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a form motor neurone disease, in 1963 shortly after his birthday. Despite being wheelchair-bound and dependent on a computerised voice system for communication, Hawking continued his research into theoretical physics. He also took up public lectures and extensive programme of travel following the illness. He also has a family of three children and three grandchildren.
Books
The physicist tried his hand at writing too. Among the many popular books, Stephen Hawking’s best seller has been ‘A Brief History of Time’, ‘Black Holes, Baby Universes and Other Essays’, ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’, ‘The Grand Design’ and ‘My Brief History’. His many publications include ‘The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime’ with G F R Ellis, ‘General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey’ with W Israel, and ‘300 Years of Gravitation’ with W Israel.Credit: The Economic TimesDiscover more from NewsBreakers
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