STEPHEN WILLIAM HAWKING MADE HISTORY

You may have heard even if you don't keep close eye on new developments in physics, you've probably heard of the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. He prided himself on making his complex physical concepts open to the public and writing the bestseller. Even though you may be familiar with his academic work, however, there are many interesting facts you might not know about Hawking, stretching from his time at school and gradual development of disability to his opinions on the future of the human race

Professor Stephen William Hawking was born on 8th January 1942 in Oxford, England. Stephen wanted to study mathematics although his father would have preferred medicine. Mathematics was not available at University College, so he pursued physics instead. After three years and not very much work, he was awarded a first class honours degree in natural science.

Educational Background

In October 1962, Stephen had the opportunity at the University of Cambridge to do research in cosmology, there being no-one working in that area in Oxford at the time. After gaining his PhD with his thesis titled ' Properties of Expanding Universes ', he became first, a research fellow then Fellow for Distinction in Science at Gonville & Caius College. Stephen moved to the Institute of Astronomy in 1968 and later moving back to Cambridge, got employed as a research assistant, and published his first academic book with George Ellis. Distinguished Scholar at the California Institute of Technology. He became a Reader in Gravitational Physics at DAMTP, progressing to Professor of Gravitational Physics. He then held the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1979 to 2009.

His Illness

When Stephen was in his third year at Oxford, he was diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) a shortly after his 21st birthday. This disease is a fatal neuromuscular disease that attacks nerve cells and pathways. The disease is progressive, and Stephen Hawking has lived with the disease for 36 years. Up until 1974 (he was diagnosed in 1963), Stephen could not feed himself, get up out of bed etc. In spite of being wheelchair-bound and dependent on a computerized voice system for communication; his disease was starting to make life more difficult for Stephen. Though Hawking has this disease, he says, its still did not prevent him from having an attractive family and being successful in work. Stephen continued to combine family life with his research into theoretical physics, in addition to an extensive programme of travel and public lectures. According to Hawking, his disease made him work harder. He realized he had things to do in life and he better get going.

Career Achievements

In his work and in collaboration with Penrose, they published a proof that if the universe obeys the general theory of relativity and fits any of the models of physical cosmology developed by Alexander Friedmann, then it must have begun as a singularity. Hawking’s first major work was published with Roger Penrose, a physicist very famous in his own right, and George Ellis, during the period 1968-1970. Later, working by himself, in 1974, he began to formulate ideas about the quantum evaporation of exploding black holes, the now famous “Hawking radiation.” These are all tremendously important scientific works. In 1984 Stephen worked with James Hartle, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Using an elegant vacuum fluctuation model, they were able to provide a mathematical rationalization for the entire universe popping into existence at the beginning of time. This is also called the “universe as a wave function.”

Books He Published

Hawking in time proposed what was known as the second law of black hole dynamics that the event horizon of a black hole can never get smaller. His essay titled "Black Holes" won the Gravity Research Foundation Award in January 1971. Hawking's first book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, written with George Ellis, was published in 1973. By the late 1970s and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a significant breakthrough in theoretical physics. At the time, he was one of the youngest scientists to become a Fellow.

He decided to write a popular book about the universe that would be accessible to the public called A Brief History of Time, got completed in 1984. The book was published in 1988 and it proved to be an extraordinary success. The book was translated into many languages, and ultimately sold an estimated 9 million copies. Media attention was intense; a Newsweek magazine cover and a television special, both described him as "Master of the Universe". Success led to significant financial rewards, but also the challenges of celebrity status. Hawking travelled extensively to promote his work, and enjoyed partying and dancing into the small hours. Some colleagues were resentful of the attention Hawking received, feeling it was due to his disability. He received further academic recognition, including five more honorary degrees. In addition he published several other books which did gain a lot of attention. Black Holes and Baby Universes and other essays (1993), The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), On the shoulder of the Giants (2002) and God created the integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that changes History (2005)

A Good Researcher

Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a more academically senior post, as reader in gravitational physics. The mid to late 1970s were a period of growing public interest in black holes and the physicists who were studying them. Hawking was regularly interviewed for and received increasing academic recognition of his work. Hawking also began a new line of quantum theory research into the origin of the universe. At a Vatican conference, he presented work suggesting that there might be no boundary – or beginning or ending – to the universe. Further work by Hawking in the area of arrows of time led to the 1985 publication of a paper theorizing that if the no-boundary proposition were correct, then when the universe stopped expanding and eventually collapsed, time would run backwards.

Took Zero-gravity Flight to Save the Human Race

In 2007, when Stephen Hawking was 65 years old, he got to take the ride of a lifetime. He was able to experience zero gravity and float out of his wheelchair thanks to Zero Gravity Corp. The service involves an airplane ride in which sharp ascent and descent allows passengers to experience weightlessness in flight for several rounds, each about 25-seconds long. Hawking, free from his wheelchair for the first time in four decades, was even able to perform gymnastic flips. Hawking also booked a seat with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to ride on a sub-orbital flight.

Hawking spent his entire life diving deep into mysteries of cosmology, poaching innumerable gems and romanticizing the concept of our existence. As long as he lived, he marveled over the grand design of the universe. Now, as the star scientist finds his way to the end of his time all we are left with is the knowledge he gave us, with a hope that the legacy of extrapolation and invention will continue till the end of time.