Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was an absolute genius. He has won over 20 medals for his work as a cosmologist, physicist and author.

Early Accomplishments

From the age of 14, he and a bunch of pals (and a maths tutor) built a computer using recycled junk like a telephone switchboard, clock parts and others.

While studying at Cambridge, he wrote his world famous essay, Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time in 1966.

Best Known For

His forte in science was general relativity and quantum gravity and his book, A Brief History of Time remained a British bestseller for an amazing record of 4 years and 9 months.

Although limited to the use of a wheelchair and loss of speech and motor function in his muscles due to a disease called ALS, he still changed the world’s understanding of the cosmos and even went to space in 2007.

Sexual Orientation

Stephen was straight and was married to Jane Wilde in 1965 but divorced her in 1995 to be married to one of his attendant nurse, Elaine Mason some months after. In 2006, they quietly split and he went back to live with his ex-wife.

Family

He was the first child of Frank and Isobel Hawking (both late) and he had 2 sisters, Mary and Philippa. He also had an adopted sibling, late Edward Hawking.

He is also survived by children; Robert, Lucy and Timothy and one grandchild.

Religion

It is not news that Stephen was a staunch atheist who never missed the opportunity to profess his disbelief in the existence of God and his trust in science.

Worth To Know

The films, The Universe of Stephen Hawking (2010) and Hawking (2013) are about his life and he even guest-starred in Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory.

Some of the most prominent of his numerous awards are Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and Commander of the British Empire in 1982.