Stephen Hawking dies at age of 76

LONDON, March 15 (Xinhua) — Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking
died peacefully at home in the British university city of Cambridge in the
early hours of Wednesday at the age of 76, his family spokesman said.

“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today,” his
children Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement. “He was a great
scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for
many years,” his family said. “His courage and persistence with his
brilliance and humor inspired people across the world … We will miss him
forever.”  Hawking, a legendary figure in the modern history of physics, is
known for his work with black holes and relativity, and has authored
several best-sellers on science, despite being bound to wheelchair after
contracting a motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21.  He broke new
ground on the basic laws which govern the universe, including the
revelation that black holes have a temperature and produce radiation, now
known as Hawking radiation. At the same time, he also sought to explain
many of these complex scientific ideas to a wider audience through popular
books, most notably his bestseller A Brief History of Time, according to an
obituary posted on the University of Cambridge’s website.

Professor Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the
University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009, after which he worked as
director of research at the Cambridge University Department of Applied
Mathematics and Theoretical Physics until his death.  “Professor Hawking
was a unique individual who will be remembered with warmth and affection
not only in Cambridge but all over the world,” Professor Stephen Toope,
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, paid tribute in a
statement.   “His exceptional contributions to scientific knowledge and the
popularisation of science and mathematics have left an indelible legacy.
His character was an inspiration to millions. He will be much missed,” he
said.  Professor Hawking once wrote on his website that he had had motor
neurone disease for practically all his adult life, which did not prevent
him from having a very attractive family and being successful in his work.
“I have been lucky that my condition has progressed more slowly than is
often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope,” said Professor
Hawking, who, with his fierce intellect coupled with his illness, came to
symbolize the unbounded possibilities of the human mind.

Hawking was born on Jan. 8, 1942 in Oxford, growing up in London and St
Albans. Despite the fact that he was always ranked at the lower end of his
class by teachers, his school friends nicknamed him “Einstein” which seemed
to have encouraged his interest in science. “Physics and astronomy offered
the hope of understanding where we came from and why we are here. I wanted
to fathom the depths of the universe,” Hawking once said.  The ambition
brought him a scholarship to study physics in Oxford, where he graduated
with a first-class honors degree before going to the University of
Cambridge as a PhD student of cosmology.  Hawking’s influential books
included The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime, with George Ellis;
Superspace and Supergravity, with M. Rocek (1981); The Very Early Universe,
with G. Gibbons and S. Siklos; and General Relativity: an Einstein
centenary survey as well as 300 Years of Gravitation, with W. Israel.

However, it was his popular science book A Brief History of Time that took
Hawking beyond the academic world and made him a household name. The book
was published in 1988 and became a surprise bestseller, remaining on the
Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.  A film
called The Theory of Everything was released in 2014, telling the story of
Hawking and his first wife Jane based on her book. The film was met with
worldwide acclaim and Eddie Redmayne, who played Stephen Hawking, won the
2015 Academy Award for Best Actor.  At his 75th birthday celebration,
Hawking said “It has been a glorious time to be alive and doing research
into theoretical physics. Our picture of the universe has changed a great
deal in the last 50 years, and I’m happy if I’ve made a small
contribution.” “So remember to look up at the stars and not down at your
feet … Be curious, and however difficult life may seem, there is always
something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give
up,” he said.