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Introduction

Stephen Hawking was an English scientist. He was a cosmologist, or someone who studies the universe as a whole. He is known for his work on black holes. Hawking also wrote a number of best-selling books, including A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988).

Early Life

Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. He studied at the University of Oxford and earned a bachelor’s degree from there in 1962. When Hawking was 21, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—a disease that weakens muscles and causes paralysis. Despite his diagnosis, he continued to work. He earned a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 1966.

Career

As a cosmologist, Hawking studied the basic laws that govern the universe. One of his theories was that mini black holes were formed following the big bang. These mini black holes contain one billion tons of mass but occupy less than the space of an atom. Hawking’s work inspired others to investigate the properties of black holes.

Hawking became a professor at Cambridge in 1977. Two years later he was appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics, a post once held by Isaac Newton. In 2009 he was named the Director of Research for the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge.

Honors

Hawking earned many honors and awards, including many honorary degrees. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1974, as one of its youngest fellows. He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1982. In 2006 Hawking received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society, and he was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Hawking died on March 14, 2018, in Cambridge.

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