Stephen Hawking

by Sofia Blasini

Stephen W. Hawking is a notable theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author, and researcher at the University of Cambridge. His contributions to modern physics have led to theories on quantum mechanics and relativity, as well as widespread public recognition due to his inspirational life story. Multiple movies portray his work and life as one of the world's greatest scientist to have lived.

Personal life

Early life

Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942-- coincidentally 300 years after the death of Galileo-- in Oxford, England. His parents, Frank and Isobel Hawking, lived in north London but were forced to have Stephen in Oxford since it was the safest place during World War II. Frank and Isobel's economical constraints did not impede them from studying medicine and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, respectively, at the University of Oxford, where they met at a medical research institute. Isobel gave birth to Hawking's two younger sisters (Philippa and Mary) and adopted Hawking's brother Edward.

When Hawking was eight years old, his family moved to St. Albans-- a town north of London. Hawking went to St. Albans School when he was eleven years old. The Hawking family was considered very intelligent and eccentric and lived in a poorly maintained house. Hawking later attended University College, Oxford. Hawking wanted to pursue a degree in Mathematics whereas his father wanted him to study medicine as he did; however, Hawking opted to study Physics as a Mathematics major was unavailable. He achieved first class honors degree in Natural Science after three relaxed years in University College.

Disability

Hawking first noticed problems with his health while he was at Oxford. He would constantly trip and slur his speech. However, he did not check the problem until 1963 while at Cambridge when he was just 21 years old. His father, noticing his symptoms, took him to the doctor, and Hawking spent two weeks undergoing medical tests in the clinic. The doctors finally diagnosed Hawking with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord. The doctor's told Hawking he was expected to live for about two and a half years more.

Although this was devastating news for Hawking and his family, he was cheered up by a couple of events. The first of these was having a boy with leukemia as his roommate in the hospital. Hawking felt his disease was more tolerable than his roommate's. Secondly, Hawking dreamed that he was going to be executed, which made him realize that he still had things to complete in his life.

One of the most significant parts of his life was meeting his future wife, Jane Wilde, in a New Year's party in 1963 shortly after being diagnosed with ALS. His love for her changed his life, and he later married Jane in 1965. Moreover, Hawking's ALS diagnosis propelled him to become the incredibly renown scientist he is today. Hawking claims he "there had not seemed to be anything worth doing" before his condition as he was "very bored with life." However, realizing that he had a time clock for his life, he immersed himself into his work and research.

Education

Hawking attended University College, Oxford for his undergraduate education, where he completed a degree in Physics. Contrary to what most would believe, Hawking slacked his three years at Oxford, claiming he probably devoted about a thousand hours to his studies during his three years at Oxford. He found the academic work very easy, and refused to answer exam questions that tested factual knowledge rather answering only those that dealt with theoretical physics. He barely made first class honors in Oxford, which he needed in order to continue to his graduate studies in cosmology at the University of Cambridge. In a critical oral exam, Hawking told his examiners that "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If I receive a Second, I shall stay in Oxford, so I expect you will give me a First." and his examiners realized that Hawking was far more clever than any of them.

Hawking had a rough start at Cambridge. During his time at Cambridge, he was diagnosed with ALS and felt depressed for a period of time. He was, however, motivated by his supervisor Dennis William Sciama to continue his studies, and he did so very brashly. Physicist at the time debated about the prevailing theories on the creation of the universe, specifically the Big Bang and Steady State theories. Hawking wrote his thesis inspired by Roger Penrose's theorem of a spacetime singularity in the center of black holes, and applied this thinking to the entire universe. Hawking attained his PhD degree in cosmology in 1966, titling his Adams Prize winning essay "Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time."

Connectedness

1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?
2. How is it connected to your major?
3. Is there an interesting industrial application?

See also

[1]

Further reading

"A Brief History of Time" (1988)

"Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays" (1993)

"The Universe in a Nutshell" (2001)

"On The Shoulders of Giants" (2002)

"God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History" (2005)

"My Brief History" (2013)

External links

Internet resources on this topic

References

http://www.hawking.org.uk/about-stephen.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking#Bibliography

http://www.biography.com/people/stephen-hawking-9331710#early-life