Stephen Hawking Introduction
Stephen
William Hawking is an English Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Author and
Director of Research at the Center for Theoretical Cosmology within The University of Cambridge. His scientist works include collaboration with Roger
Penrose on Gravitational Singularity Theorems in the framework of general
relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation
called Hawking Radiation. Stephen was the first to set out a theory of
Cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and Quantum
Mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation
of quantum mechanics.
Stephen
Hawking is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member
of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential
Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the US. He was ranked
number 25 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Hawking was the
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and has
achieved commercial success with works of popular science in which he discusses
his own theories and cosmology in general. His written book named ‘ A Brief
History of Time’ appeared on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a
record-breaking 237 weeks. He is paralyzed uses a wheelchair and a speech-generating device for communication.
Stephen Hawking Early LIfe
Stephen
William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 the 300th Anniversary
of the death of Galileo. He was born in Oxford, England. His father name is
Frank Hawking and his mother's name is Isobel Hawking. They had four children.
Hawking is the eldest among them. His father Oxford graduate was a respected
medical researcher with a specialty in tropical diseases. His Scottish mother
had earned her way into Oxford University when few women were able to go to
college.
Stephen
Hawking’s birth came at an inopportune time when his parents didn’t have much
money. The political climate was also bad as England was dealing with World War
II. To seek a safer place, Isobel returned to Oxford to have the couple’s first
child. Their home in St. Albans was a three-story fixer-upper that never quite
got fixed and the family car was an old London Taxi.
Hawking’s
father wanted his eldest child to go into medicine but at an early age, Hawking
showed a passion for science and the sky. Early in his academic life, Hawking
was not an exceptional student. At St. Albans School, he was third from the
bottom of his class during the first year. Hawking focused on pursuits
outside of school. He loved board games and he and a few close friends created
new games of their own. Hawking along with several friends constructed a computer out of
recycled parts for solving rudimentary mathematical equations.
At the age of 17, he entered University College at Oxford University. Hawking
wanted to study Mathematics but Oxford didn’t offer a degree in Mathematics,
for that Hawking studied Physics and more specifically Cosmology. Hawking
didn’t put much time into his studies. At age 21, while studying cosmology
at the University of Cambridge, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis. He graduated with honors in natural science and went on to
attend Trinity Hall at Cambridge University for a Ph.D. in cosmology in 1962.
Stephen Hawking Personal Life
Before the diagnosis of his illness, he met a
girl named Jane Wilde, a friend of his sister. Then they began to get
intimated. The couple became
engaged in October 1964. In 1965,
they got married. They had three children together named Robert, Lucy, and
Timothy. At the beginning of their marriage, Jane was a pillar of strength for
Hawking but with his redounding physical condition and increasing global popularity,
their marriage became a big burden on Jane and tension started to brew in their
relationship.
Hawking got involved in an affair with one of
his nurses named Elaine Manson during the late 1980 and left Jane for her. In
1995, He took a divorce from Jane. After his divorce from Jane in 1995, Hawking married Mason
in September declaring that ‘It's wonderful- I have married the woman I love.’
Their marriage proved
to be unfavorable to Hawking’s family life and he withdrew from the lives of
his children. Hawking’s physical condition is deteriorating day by day. He
began to control his communication device with movements of his cheek muscles
in 2005. It was suspected that Elaine was physically abusing him but Hawking
refused it. In 2006 He took a divorce from Elaine.
He has one grandchild. Hawking is a big fan
of Marilyn Monroe. His 60th birthday celebration included an
appearance by a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. He can no longer drive his
wheelchair. He requires a ventilator at times and has been hospitalized several
times since 2009. As of 2009 Hawking has
been almost completely paralyzed. He is closely working with researchers on systems that could
translate his brain patterns into switch activation.
Stephen Hawking Career and Contribution
Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical
physicist and cosmologist who is widely considered to be one of the greatest
scientists alive today. He is currently the director of research at
the Center for Theoretical Cosmology, University of Cambridge.
In his work, and in collaboration
with Penrose, Hawking extended the singularity theorem concepts first explored
in his doctoral thesis. This included not only the existence of singularities
but also the theory that the universe might have started as a singularity.
Their joint essay was the runner-up in the 1968 Gravity Research Foundation
competition. In 1970 they published a proof that if the universe obeys the
general theory of relativity and fits any of the models of physical cosmology
developed by Alexander Friedmann, then it must have begun as a
singularity. In 1969, Hawking accepted a specially created Fellowship for
Distinction in Science to remain at Caius.
In 1970, Hawking postulated what
became known as the second law of black hole dynamics, that the event horizon
of a black hole can never get smaller. With James M. Bardeen and Brandon
Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy
with thermodynamics. To Hawking's irritation, Jacob Bekenstein, a graduate
student of John Wheeler, went further—and ultimately correctly—to apply
thermodynamic concepts literally.
In the early 1970s, Hawking's work
with Carter, Werner Israel, and David C. Robinson strongly supported Wheeler's the no-hair theorem that no matter what the original material from which a black
hole is created, it can be completely described by the properties of mass,
electrical charge and rotation. His essay titled "Black Holes"
won the Gravity Research Foundation Award in January 1971. Hawking's first book, The
Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, written with George Ellis, was
published in 1973.
Beginning in 1973, Hawking moved
into the study of quantum gravity and quantum mechanics. His work in this the area was spurred by a visit to Moscow and discussions with Yakov Borisovich
Zel'dovich and Alexei Starobinsky, whose work showed that according to the
uncertainty principle, rotating black holes emit particles.
