Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking was a titan of modern theoretical physics and cosmology, celebrated worldwide for his groundbreaking insights into gravitational singularities, black hole thermodynamics, and the origins of the cosmos. Diagnosed with early-onset motor neuron disease (ALS) at age twenty-one and given two years to live, Hawking defied all medical expectations, living for more than five decades and communicating through a trademark speech synthesizer after losing his voice.

Collaborating with Roger Penrose, Hawking proved the gravitational singularity theorems within general relativity, demonstrating that the universe originated in a cosmic singularity. In 1974, he made the revolutionary theoretical discovery that black holes emit thermal radiation—now known as Hawking radiation—due to quantum vacuum fluctuations near the event horizon, implying that black holes can slowly evaporate and lose mass. His 1988 bestseller A Brief History of Time brought profound cosmological concepts to hundreds of millions of readers across the globe.