Wikipedia

Stephen Hawking

British theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author (1942–2018)

Stephen William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018) was a British theoretical physicist and mathematician. He was born in Oxford. In 1950, he moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire. He was one of the world's leading theoretical physicists.[17] Hawking has written many science books for people who are not scientists.

Stephen Hawking

CH CBE FRS FRSA
Black-and-white photograph of Stephen Hawking at NASA's StarChild Learning Center
Hawking at NASA's StarChild Learning Center, 1980s
Born
Stephen William Hawking

(1942-01-08)8 January 1942
Oxford, England
Died14 March 2018(2018-03-14) (aged 76)
Cambridge, England
Resting placeWestminster Abbey, Westminster, London[1]
NationalityBritish
EducationSt Albans School, Hertfordshire
Alma mater
Known for
Spouses
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(m. 1965; div. 1995)​
Elaine Mason
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​
(m. 1995; div. 2007)​
Children3, including Lucy Hawking
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisProperties of Expanding Universes (1966)
Doctoral advisorDennis Sciama[2]
Other academic advisorsRobert Berman[3]
Doctoral students
Websitehawking.org.uk
Signature

Hawking was a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a position that Isaac Newton once had).[18] He retired on 1 October 2009.[19]

Hawking had a motor neurone disease, and because of that he could not move or talk very well. The illness worsened over the years and he was almost completely paralysed. He used a wheelchair to move, and an Intel computer to talk for him. He died on 14 March 2018.

Early life and education

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Hawking went to St Albans School, a local public school in Hertfordshire. At 17, he passed an exam to study at Oxford. He studied physics and chemistry there. Because he found it really easy at the beginning, he didn't study a lot for the final exams.

In October 1962 he started his graduate course at Trinity Hall. It was at this time that his illness started to show up. He had difficulties in rowing and then even simply in walking. However, he finished his PhD and wrote about black holes in his thesis. He then got a fellowship (a job as a university teacher) at Gonville and Caius College in 1965.

Career

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Hawking was a cosmologist—someone who studies the structure of the universe (stars and space). He invented important theories about the Big Bang (the start of the universe), black holes and how they work.

Stephen Hawking predicted that black holes eject some radiation (energy), even though they normally swallow everything. That kind of radiation is named "Hawking Radiation."

Hawking also worked on the problem of quantum gravity. Quantum gravity tries to explain how gravity works with quantum mechanics (physics of tiny things.) That is a hard problem that scientists have not solved yet.

Hawking also wrote popular books about science for non-scientists. His first book, A Brief History of Time, sold over ten million copies. Hawking had many other jobs as well. He was an Actor, Mathematician, etc. More info on the official site

Death

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Hawking died on 14 March 2018 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire of complications from motor neuron disease at the age of 76.[20] His ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey in London near Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton.[21]

Selected publications

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Technical

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  • Singularities in Collapsing Stars and Expanding Universes, with D.W. Sciama, 1969. Comments on Astrophysics and Space Physics. Vol 1
  • Hawking, Stephen; Penrose, Roger (2000). The Nature of Space and Time. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-05084-3.
  • Hawking, S.W.; Ellis, G.F.R. (1973). The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-09906-6.
  • Penrose, Roger (1997). The Large, the Small and the Human Mind. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-56330-7.
  • Information Loss in Black Holes, Cambridge University Press, 2005
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Hawking in 2013

Children's books

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Shirbon, Estelle (20 March 2018). "Stephen Hawking to Join Newton, Darwin in Final Resting Place". London: Reuters. Archived from the original on 21 March 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Stephen Hawking at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ↑ Ferguson 2011, p. 29.
  4. ↑ Allen, Bruce (1983). Vacuum energy and general relativity (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  5. ↑ Bousso, Raphael (1997). Pair creation of black holes in cosmology (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  6. ↑ Carr, Bernard John (1976). Primordial black holes (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Carr, Bernard J.; Ellis, George F. R.; Gibbons, Gary W.; Hartle, James B.; Hertog, Thomas; Penrose, Roger; Perry, Malcolm J.; Thorne, Kip S. (2019). "Stephen William Hawking CH CBE. 8 January 1942—14 March 2018". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 66: 267–308. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2019.0001. ISSN 0080-4606. S2CID 131986323.
  8. ↑ Dowker, Helen Fay (1991). Space-time wormholes (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  9. ↑ Galfard, Christophe Georges Gunnar Sven [in French] (2006). Black hole information & branes (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  10. ↑ Gibbons, Gary William (1973). Some aspects of gravitational radiation and gravitational collapse (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  11. ↑ Hertog, Thomas [in Dutch] (2002). The origin of inflation (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  12. ↑ Laflamme, Raymond (1988). Time and quantum cosmology (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  13. ↑ Page, Don Nelson (1976). Accretion into and emission from black holes (PhD thesis). California Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  14. ↑ Perry, Malcolm John (1978). Black holes and quantum mechanics (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  15. ↑ Taylor-Robinson, Marika Maxine (1998). Problems in M theory. lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 894603647. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.625075. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  16. ↑ Wu, Zhongchao (1984). Cosmological models and the inflationary universe (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  17. ↑ A theoretical physicist is someone who uses information from experiments to make predictions about the world.
  18. ↑ "Stephen Hawking's Universe". PBS Online. Archived from the original on 2008-06-09. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
  19. ↑ "Stephen Hawking to give up prestigious Cambridge title".
  20. ↑ "Physicist Stephen Hawking dies aged 76". BBC News. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  21. ↑ Shirbon, Estelle (20 March 2018). "Stephen Hawking to Join Newton, Darwin in Final Resting Place". London: Reuters. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
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