Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking, whose
mental genius and physical disability made him a household name and
inspiration across the globe, has died at the age of 76.
Hawking, whose 1988 book “A Brief History of Time” became
an unlikely worldwide bestseller and cemented his superstar status,
dedicated his life to unlocking the secrets of the Universe. His genius
and wit won over fans from far beyond the rarified world of
astrophysics.
He died peacefully at his home in the British university city of Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday morning. “We
are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a
great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will
live on for many years", professor Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim said in a statement carried by Britain’s Press Association news agency.
Hawking defied predictions he would only live for a few years after
developing a form of motor neurone disease in 1964 at the age of 22. The
illness gradually robbed him of mobility, leaving him confined to a
wheelchair, almost completely paralysed and unable to speak except
through his trademark voice synthesiser.
“His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour
inspired people across the world. He once said, ‘It would not be much of
a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him
forever” the family said.
Born on January 8, 1942, Stephen William Hawking became one of the
world’s most well-regarded scientists, earning comparisons with Albert
Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. His work focused on bringing together
relativity — the nature of space and time — and quantum theory — how the
smallest particles in the Universe behave — to explain the creation of
the Universe and how it is governed.
In 1974, he became one of the youngest fellows of Britain’s most
prestigious scientific body, the Royal Society, at the age of 32. In
1979 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge
University, where he had moved from Oxford University to study
theoretical astronomy and cosmology.
Newton was a previous holder of that prestigious post. Inside the
shell of his increasingly useless body was a razor-sharp mind,
fascinated by the nature of the Universe, how it was formed and how it
might end. “My goal is simple,” he once said. “It is complete
understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at
all.”
He's survived by 3 children...
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