Answer:

STEPHEN HAWKING

Stephen Hawking, born in 1942, is the real wonder of this universe. No scientist has achieved things under the circumstances that Hawking has gone through. Hawking was then in his third year at Oxford. At that time a serious motor neurone disease destroyed his nerve cells. His muscles became atrophied. His speech became slurred. He also lost his other communicative organs. Doctors announced only two years more of life. But Hawking was undaunted. He completed his course at Oxford and submitted his Ph.D. thesis. He married Jane Wilde and they have three children. He was made Fellow of the Royal Society in the year 1974. Hawking contracted pneumonia during a research visit to Switzerland. An operation caused the complete loss of speech. He was confined to a wheel - chair with a specially devised computer to help him in his research work. His two popular books are 'A Brief History of Time' and 'The Universe in a Nutshell'. He is considered the greatest physicist after Einstein.

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Stephen Hawking Biography (1942-2018)

By Nola Taylor Redd

First Published 2 years ago

Professor Stephen Hawking speaks about "Why We Should Go into Space" for the NASA Lecture Series, April 21, 2008. (Image credit: NASA/Paul Alers)

Stephen Hawking was regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history. His work on the origins and structure of the universe, from the Big Bang to black holes, revolutionized the field, while his best-selling books have appealed to readers who may not have Hawking's scientific background. Hawking died on March 14, 2018.

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In this brief biography, we look at Hawking's education and career — ranging from his discoveries to the popular books he's written — and the disease that robbed him of mobility and speech.

A challenging life

British cosmologist Stephen William Hawking was born in England on Jan. 8, 1942 — 300 years to the day after the death of the astronomer Galileo Galilei. He attended University College, Oxford, where he studied physics, despite his father's urging to focus on medicine. Hawking went on to Cambridge to research cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole.

In early 1963, just shy of his 21st birthday, Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was not expected to live more than two years. Completing his doctorate did not appear likely. Yet, Hawking defied the odds, not only attaining his Ph.D. but also forging new roads into the understanding of the universe in the decades since.

As the disease spread, Hawking became less mobile and began using a wheelchair. Talking grew more challenging and, in 1985, an emergency tracheotomy caused his total loss of speech. A speech-generating device constructed at Cambridge, combined with a software program, served as his electronic voice, allowing Hawking to select his words by moving the muscles in his cheek.

Just before his diagnosis, Hawking met Jane Wilde, and the two were married in 1965. The couple had three children before separating. Hawking remarried in 1995 but divorced in 2006.

A brilliant mind

Hawking continued at Cambridge after his graduation, serving as a research fellow and later as a professional fellow. In 1974, he was inducted into the Royal Society, a worldwide fellowship of scientists. In 1979, he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, the most famous academic chair in the world (the second holder was Sir Isaac Newton, also a member of the Royal Society).

Over the course of his career, Hawking studied the basic laws governing the universe. He proposed that, since the universe boasts a beginning — the Big Bang — it likely will have an ending. Working with fellow cosmologist Roger Penrose, he demonstrated that Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity suggests that space and time began at the birth of the universe and ends within black holes, which implies that Einstein's theory and quantum theory must be united.

Using the two theories together, Hawking also determined that black holes are not totally dark but instead emit radiation. He predicted that, following the Big Bang, black holes as tiny as protons were created, governed by both general relativity and quantum mechanics. [PHOTOS: Black Holes of the Universe]

Professor Stephen Hawking experiences the freedom of weightlessness during a zero gravity flight. (Image credit: ZERO-G)

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