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- Hawking's family was from North London,
but he was born in Oxford because ,after the second world war, Oxford was
considered a safer place to have children.
- Hawking wanted to concentrate on Mathematics during his last years in
high school, but his father wanted him to focus on chemistry because his
alma mater (Oxford) did not have a mathematics program. Hawking's
father wanted him to attend Oxford, also.
- What disease does Stephen Hawking have?
During Hawking's last year at college, in 1962, he noticed that he was
becoming very
clumsy. After extensive medical testing during 1963,
he was diagnosed with amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's
Disease). His physical condition continued to deteriorate,
and the
doctor's thought that he would not live to complete his
doctorate.
- In 1985, while Hawking was working on his first book A Brief History
of Time, he fell ill with pneumonia while at CERN (a large particle
accelerator) in Geneva, Switzerland. It was suggested that Hawking
be taken off life support, but his family chose against this. He was
flown to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, England where a tracheotomy
was performed. The tracheotomy saved his life, but left him without
use of his voice. As a supplement, he uses a computer system
equipped with an electronic voice.
Education:
- St. Albans High School for Girls
(accepted boys up to age 10)
- St. Albans School
- University College at Oxford: Awarded a First Class Honours degree in
Natural Science.
- Doctorate Degree from Cambridge in 1966.
"The prevailing attitude at Oxford at that time was very
anti-work. You were supposed to be brilliant without effort, or accept
your limitations and get a fourth-class degree. To work hard to get a
better class of degree was regarded as the mark of a grey man - the worst
epithet in the Oxford vocabulary."
Employment and Research:
- Cosmology Research at Cambridge under the
supervision of Denis Sciama.
- Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College.
- Professional Fellow at Gonville and Caius College.
- Institute of Astronomy in 1973 ??
- Professor of Gravitational Physics at Cambridge in 1977
- Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge since 1979. This
position had previously been held by Sir Isaac Newton in
1669.
Concepts and Accomplishments:
- Studied the basic laws that govern the
Universe.
- 1965 + 1970: Hawking studied the exceptions to Einstein's theory
of general relativity, often in collaboration with Roger Penrose. He
created various new mathematical techniques to study this in relation to
cosmology.
- 1970: Hawking began to study black holes, and was able to show
that black holes give off radiation. Also, he and Penrose showed
that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied that the Big Bang was
the beginning of the universe, and that Black Holes will be the end of
it. From this, Hawking and Penrose concluded that the theory of
General Relativity and Quantum Theory had to be combined.
- 1971: Hawking studied the creation of the Universe.
- 1983: Hawking's and Hartle's No Boundary Proposal stated that time
and space have no boundaries, and therefore the laws of science would hold
true everywhere, including at the beginning of the universe.
- 1988: Hawking's A Brief History of Time was published,
despite the struggles he encountered due to his health. It was on
the Sunday Times best-sellers list for 237 weeks, breaking all previous
records. This is recorded in the 1998 Guiness Book of Records.
The book has been translated into 33 languages and has sold 9 million
copies.
Publications:
The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime,
with G F R Ellis
General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W Israel,
300 Years of Gravity, with W Israel.
A Brief History of Time
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
The Universe in a Nutshell
Honours and Memberships:
- Twelve honorary degrees
- Awarded the CBE (1982)
- Companion of Honour (elected 1989).
- Fellow of The Royal Society (elected 1974).
- Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Awards
1975 Eddington Medal
1976 Hughes Medal of the Royal Society
1979 Albert Einstein Medal
1982 Order of the British Empire (Commander)
1985 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
1986 Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
1988 Wolf Prize in Physics
1989 Prince of Asturias Awards in Concord
1989 Companion of Honour
1999 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society
2003 Michelson Morley Award of Case Western Reserve University
2006 Copley Medal of the Royal Society
Family:
A Wife, Three Children, One Grandchild. |
