Stephen Hawking (born 8 January, 1942) is a theoretical physicist and former Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He is also the celebrated author of the book, ‘A Brief History of Time’, an international bestseller for a record-breaking 237 weeks. He is now Director of Research at the Institute for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge. His other publications include ‘A Briefer History of Time’, ‘Black Holes and Baby Universe’ and ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’. Despite suffering from motor neurone disease, he has done significant work in Physics with his proposal of the four laws of black hole mechanics coupled with the drawings of thermodynamics. He calculated that black holes emit radiation, now patented as Hawking or Bekensein-Hawking radiation in 1974. His work in super gravity and the top down cosmology theory are well received by the scientists of the world.
Hawking has received the highest civilian award in the US, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
