Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and

author. His key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation). He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. Subsequently, he became research director at the university's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology. Hawking has a motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years. He is now almost completely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He has been married twice and has three children. Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 to Frank Hawking, a research biologist, and Isobel Hawking.[1] He has two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward.[2] Although Hawking's parents were living in North London, they moved to Oxford while his mother was pregnant with Stephen, desiring a safer location for the birth of their first child (London was under attack at the time by the Luftwaffe).[3] After Hawking was born, the family moved back to London, where his father headed the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research.[1] In 1950, Hawking and his family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he attended St Albans High School for Girls from 1950 to 1953 (At that time, boys could attend the girls' school until the age of 10).[2][3] From the age of 11, he attended St Albans School, where he was a good, but not exceptional, student.[4] Inspired by his mathematics teacher, Hawking originally wanted to study the subject at university. However, Hawking's father wanted him to apply to University College, Oxford, where his father had attended. As University College did not have a mathematics fellow at that time, applications were not accepted from students who wished to study that discipline. Hawking therefore applied to read natural sciences, in which he gained a scholarship. Once at University College, Hawking specialised in physics.[3] His interests during this time were in thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. While at Oxford, he coxed a rowing team, which, he stated, helped relieve his immense boredom at the university.[5] His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said in The New York Times Magazine: "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it. ... Of course, his mind was completely different from all of his contemporaries".[4] Hawking's unimpressive study habits[6] resulted in a final examination score on the borderline between first and second class honours, making an "oral examination" necessary. Berman said of

the oral examination: "And of course the examiners then were intelligent enough to realize they were talking to someone far more clever than most of themselves".[7] After receiving his B.A. degree at Oxford in 1962, he left for graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.[7] At the celebration of his 65th birthday on 8 January 2007, Hawking announced his plan to take a zero-gravity flight that year, with an intention to later take a sub-orbital spaceflight. Billionaire Richard Branson pledged to pay all expenses for a future flight on Virgin Galactic's space service, costing an estimated 100,000.[54] Stephen Hawking's zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet" of Zero Gravity Corporation, during which he experienced weightlessness eight times, took place on 26 April 2007.[55] He became the first quadriplegic to float in zero gravity. The fee is normally US$3,750 for 10 to 15 plunges, but Hawking was not required to pay. Hawking was quoted before the flight saying: Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons. First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden 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.[56] In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he suggested that space was the Earth's long term hope.[57] He continued this theme at a 2008 Charlie Rose interview.[58] Hawking has indicated that he is almost certain that alien life exists in other parts of the universe, "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like".[59] He believes alien life not only certainly exists on planets but perhaps even in other places, like within stars or even floating in outer space. He has also warned that a few of these species might be intelligent and threaten Earth.[60] "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said.[59] He has advocated that, rather than try to establish contact, humans should try to avoid contact with alien life forms.[59] At a George Washington University lecture in honour of NASA's fiftieth anniversary, Hawking discussed the existence of extraterrestrial life, believing that "primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare".[61]