Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. He was a director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge at the time of his death. He was also the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1979-2009. Hawking graduated from Oxford University College with a first-class BA (Hons.) degree in physics and obtained his PhD in applied mathematics and theoretical physics from Cambridge. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1963, Hawking was diagnosed with a form of motor neuron disease which led to his gradual paralysis and eventual death in 2018.