A biography of Stephen Hawking.

When Stephen Hawking was 14 he decided he wanted to specialize in Math and Physics. Later on Stephen decided to only specialize in physics, which he decided was more interesting. So, he applied at Oxford University when he was only seventeen years old. He did so well on the entry exam that he won a scholarship to study physics at Oxford. Stephen’s poor study habits didn’t change, in fact he only worked at his studies for about one hour a day. Fortunately for Stephen, he was very intelligent and managed to pass the final exam and received a degree in physics. Once he finished his degree from Oxford, He went to Cambridge University to study cosmology (The study of the universe.) Stephen planned to earn a Ph.D. While at Cambridge, Stephen noticed he was becoming clumsy. He found that work like writing and tying his shoes were becoming difficult. When Stephen returned home for Christmas his mother noticed something was wrong. She took him to the doctor, who sent him to the hospital for two weeks of medical testing. The tests had found that Stephen had an incurable disease called ALS. ALS is a disease that destroys the nerves that control the body’s muscles. The muscles gradually grow weaker and become paralyzed. At first Stephen would be able to use a cane to get around. But, his muscles became weaker and he needed to use a wheelchair. When this happened Stephen Hawking felt very sad and he thought he would not be able to finish his PhD. But he realized that what he wanted to do was very important. He became interested in his studies again and fell in love with a bright, energetic college student named Jane Wilde.

Stephen and Jane wanted to get married, that meant Stephen had to get a job, which meant he had to finish his Ph.D. He went back to his studies and began to teach. Most of Stephen’s early work had a lot to do with black holes (a back hole is an invisible object in space with such strong gravity that light cannot escape from it).
Stephen had some original ideas about black holes. For example, Stephen thought that small black holes could have formed after the Big Bang. Also, Stephen thought that black holes are not completely black, but that they take in some particles and give off others which makes the black hole give off radiation. Black hole radiation is now called “Hawking Radiation” in his honor. Stephen did not limit his work to black holes; he wanted to discover a scientific theory that would explain the whole universe and everything in it. One of his theories, called the “no-boundary proposal” said that the universe has no beginning and no end.
Stephen received many awards and honors for his famous work in physics. Such as:
-The Albert Einstein award for theoretical physics,
-He became a member of the Royal Society of Great Britain,
-Commander of the British Empire,
-The Lucasian professor of mathematics,
-And other honorary degrees from other universities.

As time went on ALS caused Stephen's speech to become more difficult to understand. He needed help with most daily things. He couldn’t write or type on a computer; he depended on other people to do all these things for him. Sometimes students were chosen to do this work, but the students felt that they were lucky to be working with Stephen Hawking.

When Stephen became sick with pneumonia in 1985, the doctors had to insert a breathing tube into Stephen's throat, enabling him to breath, but he would lose his voice forever. At first he had to spell words by raising his eyebrows when someone pointed to the right letter on an alphabet card. Stephen said, “It is pretty difficult to carry on a conversation like that, let alone write a scientific paper.”
Stephen was afraid he would be unable to work any longer.
A computer expert thought he had a solution to Stephen's speaking problem; he had a computer program that would let Stephen use his fingers to select words from a list on a computer screen. A voice synthesizer would then speak the words that Stephen had selected. This system was slow, but so much better than anything else, and with this, he was able to finish his new book, “A Brief History of Time” which became a best seller. Now Stephen, in addition to being a famous physicist and author, was a movie star!
Stephen and Jane Hawking divorced, but Stephen got re-married in 1995 to one of his nurses named Elaine Mason.
Stephen Hawking continues his research in physics. He says: “My goal is simple, it is to have a complete understanding of the universe”

Stephen Hawking Gallery