Actors - Stephen Hawking

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	Actors - Stephen Hawking

Professor Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, (born January 8, 1942) is considered one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton), and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Despite being severely disabled by motor neurone disease, he has had a successful career and has achieved status as a worldwide celebrity.

Biography

Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on January 8, 1942. His parents were Frank and Isobel Hawking. He had two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adoptive brother, Edward. Frank was a researcher in tropical medicine. Of his family, Stephen was closest to his mother, who was active in left-wing politics. Isobel relates that around the time of Stephen's birth she bought an astronomical atlas from Blackwell's in Oxford, which her sister-in-law later remarked to have been a rather prophetic purchase.

Hawking showed great talent in mathematics and physics at an early age. When he was eleven he went to St Albans School in Hertfordshire, near London. He then progressed on to University College, Oxford, where he wanted to study mathematics. When mathematics wasn't available for him to study, he studied physics instead. Initially, his father wanted him to study medicine. He read for his PhD at Trinity Hall, where he is currently a honorary fellow.

Hawking was elected as one of the youngest fellows of the Royal Society in 1974, was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is a respected physicist, with many works recognised by both the International Association of Natural Physics and the American Physics-Astronomy Guild of Amherst. Stephen also enjoys inspiring young people into science, and emphasizing that just because a person is physically disabled, he is not necessarily mentally disabled.

Research fields

Hawking's principal fields of research are physical cosmology, quantum gravity, and string theory. In 1971, in collaboration with Sir Roger Penrose, he provided mathematical support for the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe; if the general theory of relativity was correct, the universe must have a singularity, or starting point, in space-time. Hawking also suggested that, after the Big Bang, primordial or mini black holes were formed. He showed that, neglecting quantum mechanical effects, the surface area of a black hole can increase but never decrease, derived a limit to the radiation emitted when black holes collide, and that a single black hole cannot break apart into two separate black holes. In 1974, he calculated that black holes thermally create and emit subatomic particles until they exhaust their energy and explode. Known as Hawking radiation, this theory was first to describe a mathematical link among gravity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics. In 1981, Hawking proposed that, although the universe had no boundary, it was finite in space-time; 1983 saw his mathematical proof of this.

Illness

Despite being severely disabled by motor neurone disease, Hawking is highly active in physics, writing, and public life. The disease makes it necessary for Hawking to carry out the long and complex calculations that his work requires in his head.

When he was young, he was athletic and enjoyed riding horses and playing with the other children. At Oxford, he coxed a rowing team, which he stated helped relieve his immense boredom at the school. Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at Cambridge. Diagnosis came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. He battled the odds and has survived much longer than any other known sufferer of ALS, although he has become increasingly disabled by the gradual progress of the disease. He has used an electronic voice synthesiser to communicate since a tracheostomy in 1985 that followed severe pneumonia. He gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and is now almost completely paralysed. The computer system attached to his wheelchair is operated by Hawking via an infra-red 'blink switch' clipped onto his glasses. By scrunching his right cheek up, he is able to talk, compose speeches, research papers, browse the World Wide Web and write e-mail. The system also uses radio transmission to provide control over doors in his home and office.

When he was first living with just his wife, and was confined to a wheelchair and unable to dress himself, they had physics students in to help him, in exchange for extra attention and help with their work. As he grew more disabled Hawking needed a team of nurses to provide round-the-clock care. He also needed a wheelchair that would help him not be distracted by his disability.

There is every chance that he would never have made the discoveries he has were it not for the support of his family. Despite his disease, he describes himself as "lucky" — not just because its slow progress allowed him time to make influential discoveries but because it afforded him time to have, in his own words, "a very attractive family". When Jane was asked why she decided to marry a man with a 3-year life expectancy, she responded: "These were the days of atomic gloom and doom, so we all had rather a short life expectancy."

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