Stephen William Hawking a former Lucasian Professor of mathematics and author of “A Brief History In Time” who is currently the Director of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Founder of the for Theoretical Cosomology Dept. for the University Of Cambridge was born on the 8th of Jan 1942. Wanting to study Mathematics his father would have preferred his son to study medicine. Since Mathematics was not available in the University College he pursued the study of Physics and after three years was awarded an honors degree in the Natural Sciences.
Stepehen then went on to the University of Cambridge to pursue Cosomology however there were again no one working in that field so he studied under Denis Sciama and gained his Ph.D. and moved on to the Institute of Astronomy and leaving in 1973.Stephen then came back to Cambridge where he returned to Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and began holding the Lucasian titleshortly thereafter.
The Title of Lucisian Professor was created and founded in 1663 with funds left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas who was an important member of Parliament for the University. The title had been held by famous by names of distinction such as Isaac Barrow as wellas Iaasc Newton.
Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated that it wasnecessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century.One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit
radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. Thiswould imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.
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 Gravity, with W Israel. Among the popular books Stephen Hawking has published are his best seller A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Grand Design and My Brief History.
Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees. He was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honor in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes, is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Stephen was diagnosed with ALS, a form of Motor Neurone Disease, shortly after his 21st birthday. In spite of being wheelchair bound and dependent on a computerized voice system for communication Stephen Hawking continues to combine family life (he has three children and threegrandchildren), and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive program of travel and public lectures. He still hopes to make it into space one day.
Source
shawking.org.uk
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