British theoretical physicist and renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76, a family spokesperson told news agencies on 14 March.
Professor Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England, to Frank and Isobel Hawking.
Hawking lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, since his time at Oxford University. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1963, at the age of 21.
His body of scientific work includes his analysis of gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity with Roger Penrose, as well as the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, commonly termed ‘Hawking radiation’.
Hawking was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1974, becoming one of the youngest people to receive the honour at the time.
Stephen Hawking is an internationally regarded theoretical physicist who has made vast contributions to general relativity — our current description of gravity. Since the mid-1960s, and using new mathematical methods, he has proposed models establishing the Universe as a singularity at the start of the Big Bang and presented the laws that govern black holes. In disseminating his research to a broader audience, he has become a bestselling author.Stephen Hawking’s Biography on the Royal Society of Arts
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