Stephen William Hawking is one of the most renowned scientist today ,
Born in 8th January 1942, Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years, taking up the post in 1979 and retiring on 1 October 2009,( CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA ) is a British theoretical physicist, whose systematic career spans over forty years. His books and public appearances have made him an academic renowned person and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences ,and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
He is also a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and a Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. He is known for his charity to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the framework of black holes. He has also achieved achievement with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include the runaway top seller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times topsellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
Hawking's key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein–Hawking radiation).
Hawking's parents were living in North London, they enthused to Oxford while his mother was pregnant with Stephen, desiring a safer place for the birth of their first child.
According to Hawking, a German V-2 missile struck only a few streets away.
Hawking was always interested in science. Inspired by his mathematics professor, he originally required to study the subject at university. However, Hawking's father wanted him to apply to University College, Oxford, where his father had attended. As University College did not have a mathematics fellow at that time, it would not accept applications from students who wished to read that regulation. Hawking therefore applied to read natural sciences, in which he gained a scholarship. Once at University College, Hawking specialised in physics. His interests during this time were in thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said in” The New York Times Magazine”:
Hawking was passing, but his unimpressive study habits resulted in a final examination score on the borderline between first and second class honours, making an "oral examination" necessary. Berman said of the oral examination:
After receiving his B.A. degree at Oxford in 1962, he stayed to study astronomy. He decided to leave when he found that studying sunspots, which was all the observatory was prepared for, did not appeal to him and that he was more concerned in theory than in observation. He left Oxford for Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he engaged in the study of theoretical astronomy and cosmology.
profession in theoretical physics
Hawking's faith that the lay person should have access to his work led him to write a series of popular science books in addition to his educational work. The first of these, A Brief History of Time, was published on 1 Apr 1988 by Hawking, his family and friends, and some leading physicists. It surprisingly became a best-seller and was followed by The Universe in a Nutshell (2001). Both books have remained extremely popular all over the world. A collection of essays titled Black Holes and Baby Universes (1993) was also admired. His most recent book, A Briefer History of Time (2005), co-written by Leonard Mlodinow, aims to update his earlier works and make them available to an even wider audience. He and his daughter, Lucy Hawking, have recently published a children's book focusing on science that has been described to be "like Harry Potter book, but without the magic." This book is called George's Secret Key to the Universe and includes information on Hawking radiation.
Hawking is also known for his humor; he is renowned for his oft-made statement, "When I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I reach for my pistol." This was a deliberately ironic paraphrase of "Whenever I hear the word culture... I release the security-catch of my Browning",
His wit has both entertained the non-specialist public and helped them to understand complex questions. Asked in October 2005 on the British daytime chat show Richard & Judy, to explain his assertion that the question "What came before the Big Bang?" was meaningless, he compared it to asking "What lies north of the North Pole?"
Jane Hawking (née Wilde), Hawking's first wife, cared for him until 1991 when the couple separated, reportedly because of the pressures of fame and his increasing disability. They had three children: Robert (b. 1967), Lucy (b. 1969), and Timothy (b. 1979). Hawking then married his nurse, Elaine Mason (who was previously married to David Mason, the designer of the first version of Hawking's talking computer), in 1995. In Oct 2006, Hawking filed for divorce from his second wife.
In 1999, Jane Hawking published a memoir, Music to Move the Stars, detailing her own long-term connection with a family friend whom she later married.
Hawking was asked about his IQ in a 2004 newspaper interview, and replied, "I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."