Stephen William Hawking - World-renowned Physicist

About Stephen Hawking, his life, challenges he faced, about his family, his ungraduated life, about his childhood, his awards and much more

1. Stephen Hawking Prepared by: Atharv Sah DPS Haldwani

2. Stephen Hawing

3. Stephen William Hawking  (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge at the time of his death.  He was the  Lucasian Professor of Mathematics  at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.

4. childhood Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. His father, a well-known researcher in tropical medicine, urged his son to seek a career in medicine, but Stephen found biology and medicine were not exact enough. Therefore, he turned to the study of mathematics and physics. Hawking was not an outstanding student at St. Alban's School, nor later at Oxford University, which he entered in 1959.

5. New life Begins He was a social young man who did little schoolwork because he was able to grasp the essentials of a mathematics or physics problem quickly. At home he reports, "I would take things apart to see how they worked, but they didn't often go back together." His early school years were marked by unhappiness at school, with his peers and on the playing field. While at Oxford he became increasingly interested in physics (study of matter and energy), eventually graduating with a first class honors in physics (1962). He immediately began postgraduate studies at Cambridge University. The onset of Hawking's graduate education at Cambridge marked a turning point in his life.

6. It was then that he embarked upon the formal study of cosmology, which focused his study. And it was then that he was first stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease, a weakening disease of the nervous and muscular system that eventually led to his total confinement in a wheelchair.

7. FAMILY Hawking's mother was born into a family of doctors in Glasgow, Scotland. His wealthy paternal great-grandfather, from Yorkshire, over-extended himself buying farm land and then went bankrupt in the great agricultural depression during the early 20th century. His paternal great-grandmother saved the family from financial ruin by opening a school in their home. Despite their families' financial constraints, both parents attended the University of Oxford, where Frank read medicine and Isobel read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

8. Isobel worked as a secretary for a medical research institute, and Frank was a medical researcher. Hawking had two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward Frank David (1955–2003). In 1950, when Hawking's father became head of the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research, the family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire. In St Albans, the family was considered highly intelligent and somewhat eccentric; meals were often spent with each person silently reading a book. They lived a frugal existence in a large, cluttered, and poorly maintained house and travelled in a converted London taxicab.

9. Undergraduate life Hawking began his university education at  University College, Oxford , in October 1959 at the age of 17. For the first 18 months, he was bored and lonely – he found the academic work "ridiculously easy”. A change occurred during his second and third year when, according to Berman( his physics tutor ), Hawking made more of an effort "to be one of the boys". He developed into a popular, lively and witty college member, interested in classical music and science fiction.  Part of the transformation resulted from his decision to join the college boat club, the  University College Boat Club , where he a rowing crew. The rowing coach at the time noted that Hawking cultivated a daredevil image, steering his crew on risky courses that led to damaged boats.

10.   Hawking estimated that he studied about 1,000 hours during his three years at Oxford. These unimpressive study habits made sitting his  finals  a challenge, and he decided to answer only  theoretical physics  questions rather than those requiring factual knowledge.  A  first-class honors degree was a condition of acceptance for his planned graduate study in  cosmology  at the  University of Cambridge . Anxious, he slept poorly the night before the examinations, and the final result was on the borderline between first- and second-class honors, making a  viva  (oral examination) with the Oxford examiners necessary.

11. Awards Hawking received numerous awards and honours . Already early in the list, in 1974 he was elected a Fellow of the  Royal Society  (FRS).  Hawking received the 2015  BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award  in Basic Sciences shared with  Viatcheslav Mukhanov  for discovering that the galaxies were formed from quantum fluctuations in the early Universe. At the 2016  Pride of Britain Awards , Hawking received the lifetime achievement award "for his contribution to science and British culture".

12. Hawking was a member of the Advisory Board of the  Starmus Festival , and had a major role in acknowledging and promoting science communication. The  Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication  is an annual award initiated in 2016 to honour members of the arts community for contributions that help build awareness of science.  After receiving the award from Prime Minister  Theresa May , Hawking humorously requested that she not seek his help with  Brexit .

13. Reason For choosing Stephen hawking for this ppt Stephen hawking was a very great scientist, he is a well known scientist. He was best known for his t heory of cosmology explained by a union of the  general theory of relativity  and  quantum mechanics . He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of  quantum mechanics . I selected him for my project work because I am also fond of physics and I am motivated by his work.