Stephen Hawking

  Stephen Hawking was a renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist, known for his contributions to our understanding of the universe and his groundbreaking work on black holes. He was born in Oxford, England in 1942 and went on to study physics and mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Hawking's most famous work was his theory on black holes, which he developed while working on his PhD in the 1960s. He proposed that black holes are not completely black, but rather emit a type of radiation now known as Hawking radiation.

Hawking's contributions to science earned him numerous awards and accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. He was also a best-selling author, with his book "A Brief History of Time" becoming one of the most popular science books of all time. Despite suffering from a rare form of motor neuron disease that left him wheelchair-bound and unable to speak, Hawking continued to work and make significant contributions to science throughout his life. He passed away in 2018 at the age of 76.