Hawking, Stephen
Hawking, Stephen (William) (1942-), a British theoretical physicist. He became known for his study of certain physical characteristics of black holes, work that led to greater understanding of the origin of the universe. Hawking's A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988), which provides an overview of the origin and structure of the universe, was a best-seller.
Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. He received a B.A. from Oxford University in 1962. In 1963 he was severely disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). Hawking received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1966. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1974. From 1979 to 2009 Hawking was the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton.