Stephen William Hawking, born in Oxford, England 1942, is one of the world's leading minds in physics, and black hole theory.

All through his early education he was an average student. He was never particularly challenged by his school work, but also never excelled in it. Even during his undergraduate at Oxford, he did not score high enough for a "first class" mark, and he had to perform an oral exam in front of a panel of teachers. One recalls that at that point they realized, while his marks were not great, he was far more intelligent then most of them. He finished his BA, and began studies in astronomy, but decided to move to Cambridge to study theoretical Astronomy and Cosmology.

It was at this point, his health deteriorated, and he was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gherig's disease). He was told he would probably die in two to three years. He considered continuing his studies, in the face of his death to be futile, but after marrying his girlfreind, decided to continue. His wife and fellow students helped to care for him, but within a few years, he needed full time nursing care. His condition did not progress nearly a agressively as was first thought, and after two years of mediocre school work, he continued his work on his Doctorate, under Dr Dennis Sciama. He considers his 1965 marraige as the turning point in his life, when he decided to forge ahead, regardless of the bad prognosis.

His work since has been extensive and exhuastive. He has theoretically proved existence and workings of black holes, he has proposed a change in how we look at the universe, from a "closed system" to one with no boundaries, he provided a theorem to show a singularity in space-time, and numerous other studies in theoretical astornomy and thermodynamics.

He has published numerous books, including "A Brief History of Time", a scientific study written to be accessable for everyone, it covers the theories of the big bang, black holes, and superstring theory, and many other ideas he has helped pioneer. Surprisingly it stayed on the UK best-seller list for a record 237 weeks.

During a stay in Geneva, in 1985, he contracted Pneumonia, which is life-threatening with ALS. His breathing became so laboured, doctors had to perform an emergency traceotomy, which caused him to loose his ability to speak. Since then he has spoken using a computerized system which responds to blinks and cheek muscle movement. Despite all his health problems, he considers himslef "lucky"; his incredibly long life has allowed him to make many revolutionary contributions to science.

He has continued to teach and study, and most recently, in partnership with Sir Richard Branson, signed-on to become the first quadripelegic in space. He has taken a zero-gravity test flight, and is booked to be aboard the a sub-orbital space flight in 2009 through the Virgin Galactic space service. When asked why he replied

"...I believe that life on Earth is at an ever increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space."

This past January 8th, he celebrated his 65th birthday, having lived roughly 40 years past what doctors told him, back in 1962.

Stephen Hawking - Wikipedia entry.

Stephen Hawking - Personal Website