Stephen William Hawking (1942-2018) was a world-famous English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, mathematician, and author, widely regarded as one of the most brilliant scientific minds of his generation. Born in Oxford, England, he showed early interest in science and pursued physics at University College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class BA in natural sciences in 1962. He then moved to Trinity College, Cambridge for postgraduate studies under Dennis Sciama, earning his PhD in cosmology in 1966. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) shortly after starting at Cambridge, Hawking defied medical expectations, living with the progressive disease for over 50 years while becoming wheelchair-bound and using a speech synthesizer for communication.

Hawking's groundbreaking contributions include his work on black holes and cosmology, notably the theory of Hawking radiation, proposing that black holes emit radiation and can evaporate, bridging general relativity and quantum mechanics. He served as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1979 to 2009—one of the world's most prestigious academic positions previously held by Isaac Newton—and later as director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology. His bestselling book 'A Brief History of Time' (1988) popularized complex concepts like black holes, the Big Bang, and the nature of time, selling over 25 million copies. Hawking supervised 39 PhD students, received numerous honors, and appeared in media, including 'The Simpsons' and 'Star Trek.' He died in Cambridge on March 14, 2018.