There are many people who could be nominated for their artistic contributions, advances in technology, medical contributions and scientific advances. But one person Through his disability he proved genius. Stephen Hawking Even with being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), he has provided ground breaking work in cosmology and physics. He has written several different books to allow science more attainable to the average person.
Stephen Hawking was the oldest of four children, born to Frank and Isobel Hawking on the 8th of January, 1942 in Oxford England. He was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo. This has been a large source of pride for Hawking. He was born into a smart family his mother was one of the first female students at Oxford University. His father was also a graduate of Oxford, being a well known researcher of medicine, his specialty in tropical diseases. Stephen was seen as a bright child but was not an exceptional student. He was more interested in things outside of school. He enjoyed board games and even constructed a computer out of recycled parts to solve rudimentary mathematical equations. At the age of 17 he enrolled into Oxford University. Stephen finally told his father he did not want to study medicine and instead expressed his desire to study mathematics. Oxford did not off a degree in mathematics so Stephen decided to study physics and more intently cosmology. Stephen did not put that much time into his school work, but this didn’t matter for he graduated with honors. Once he graduated he changed schools and started to study at Cambridge University to get a PhD in cosmology. In 1963 Stephen went to see a doctor to perform some tests after his dad was noticing symptoms. Finally after awhile he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The doctors told him that he had about two-and-half years to live. This really was devastating for him and his family to hear, but this made him focus more. He married Jane Wilde in 1965, and put more focus into his work and research.
Awards-Honour
Stephen Hawking is known widely for the way he helped the world understand black holes and the universe. With all his research, in 1974 he was turned into a celebrity inside the scientific world when he revealed that black holes are not an information vacuum that they were once thought to be. Instead Hawking showed how that matter, in the form of radiation may escape the force of gravity from a collapsed star. With this explanation, Hawking Radiation was created. This announcement sent major excitement through the world of science and put Stephen on the path where he has received notoriety, honors, and distinguished titles. The following year after making this announcement he was given the Albert Einstein Award, and was honored with the Pius XI Gold Medal for Science, given to him by Pope Paul VI. After this he began to do some teaching as well. He was a visiting professor for a year at Caltech in Pasadena CA. From there he moved on to teach at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge England.
Severe Illness
While Hawking first began to notice problems with his physical health while he was at Oxford—on occasion he would trip and fall, or slur his speech—he didn't look into the problem until 1963, during his first year at Cambridge. Eventually, however, doctors did inform the Hawkings about what was ailing their son: He was in the early stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). In a very simple sense, the nerves that controled his muscles were shutting down. While physical control over his body diminished (he'd be forced to use a wheelchair by 1969), the effects of his disease started to slow down. In mid the mid 1970s, his physical state was becoming more and more severe. He could do little things like eat, or get out of bed, but almost everything else required help from others. In 1985 Hawking lost his voice after a tracheotomy operation. This greatly hampered Hawking to do his work. So a computer programmer who created a speaking program that could be directed by head or eye movement sent his invention to Hawking to help him out. When he first was using the device, Hawking would select words with a hand-held clicker. But now with very little control of his body, the program works off of a cheek muscle that is attached to a sensor. Even with this Hawking has been able to continue his writing at a good rate with the help of his assistants. Since 1988 Hawking has written numerous books. On book, “A Brief History of Time” spent more than four years on top of the London Sunday Times’ bestseller list.
Steven Hawking has been trying to one day make it into outer space. In 2007 he became the first paraplegic to experience weightlessness at the age of 65. Hawking is at some point scheduled to fly to the edge of space as one of Sir Richard Branson’s pioneer tourists. He believes that the human race will not continue if we do not go into space. Hawking has spoken out against God, saying that the Big Bang was inevitable due to the laws of physics. In his most recent work Hawking has set out to challenge Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe had to of been designed by God.
Personal Life
The most significant change in his life was the fact that he was in love. At a New Year's party in 1963, shortly before he had been diagnosed with ALS, Hawking met a young languages undergraduate named Jane Wilde. They were married in 1965.
In a sense, Hawking's disease helped him become the noted scientist he is today. Before the diagnosis, Hawking hadn't always focused on his studies. "I was bored with life before my illness," he said. "There had not seemed to be anything worth doing." With the sudden realization that he might not even live long enough to earn his Ph.D., Hawking poured himself into his work and research.
Research on Black Holes
Groundbreaking findings from another young cosmologist, Roger Penrose, about the fate of stars and the creation of black holes tapped into Hawking's own fascination with how the universe began. This set him on a career course that reshaped the way the world thinks about black holes and the universe.
While physical control over his body diminished (he'd be forced to use a wheelchair by 1969), the effects of his disease started to slow down. In 1968, a year after the birth of his son Robert, Hawking became a member of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge.
The next few years were a fruitful time for Hawking. A daughter, Lucy, was born to Stephen and Jane in 1969, while Hawking continued with his research (a third child, Timothy, arrived 10 years later). He then published his first book, the highly technical The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time (1975). He also teamed up with Penrose to expand upon his friend's earlier work.
“My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”
—Stephen Hawking
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