Stephen Hawking: Science & Technology Lecture, Interview - Education (1998)
Stephen William Hawking CH
CBE FRS FRSA (born 8 January
1942) is an
English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and director of research at the
Centre for Theoretical
Cosmology within the
University of Cambridge. His scientific works include a collaboration with
Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called
Hawking radiation.
Hawking was the first to set forth a cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Hawking is an
Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of 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.
Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; his book
A Brief History of Time stayed on the
British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
Hawking suffers from a rare early-onset slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (
ALS), also known as motor neuron disease or
Lou Gehrig's disease, that has gradually paralysed him over the decades. He communicates using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device. Hawking married twice and has three children.
At the release party for the
home video version of the A Brief History of Time,
Leonard Nimoy, who had played Spock on
Star Trek, learned that Hawking was interested in appearing on the show. Nimoy made the necessary contact, and Hawking played a holographic simulation of himself in an episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation in
1993.[306][307][308] The same year, his synthesiser voice was recorded for the
Pink Floyd song "
Keep Talking",[309][234] and in
1999 for an appearance on
The Simpsons.[
310] Hawking appeared in documentaries entitled The
Real Stephen Hawking (
2001),[296] Stephen Hawking:
Profile (
2002) [
311] and Hawking (2013), and the documentary series Stephen Hawking,
Master of the Universe (2008).[312] Hawking has also guest-starred in
Futurama[72] and
The Big Bang Theory.[
313] Hawking allowed the use of his trademarked voice in the biographical 2014 film
The Theory of Everything.[314]
Hawking has used his fame to advertise products, including a wheelchair,[296]
National Savings,[315]
British Telecom, Specsavers,
Egg Banking[316] and
Go Compare.[317]
Hawking has received numerous awards and honours.
Already early in the list, in
1974 he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). At that time, his nomination read:
"Hawking has made major contributions to the field of general relativity. These derive from a deep understanding of what is relevant to physics and astronomy, and especially from a mastery of wholly new mathematical techniques.
Following the pioneering work of Penrose he established, partly alone and partly in collaboration with Penrose, a series of successively stronger theorems establishing the fundamental result that all realistic cosmological models must possess singularities. Using similar techniques, Hawking has proved the basic theorems on the laws governing black holes: that stationary solutions of
Einstein's equations with smooth event horizons must necessarily be axisymmetric; and that in the evolution and interaction of black holes, the total surface area of the event horizons must increase. In collaboration with G.
Ellis, Hawking is the author of an impressive and original treatise on "Space-time in the Large". The citation continues:
"Other important work by Hawking relates to the interpretation of cosmological observations and to the design of gravitational wave detectors."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking