Stephen Hawking was a British theoretical physicist, he was born on January the 8th, 1942 and died March the 14th, 2018.

Hawking made many important contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity. He is also well known for his bestselling book ‘A Brief History of Time’.

Helped by the success of his book ‘A Brief History of Time’, Hawking released other books aimed at making his work accessible to a wide range of people, these include ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’, ‘A Briefer History of Time’ and ‘George's Secret Key to the Universe’, a children’s book with a strong focus on science.

Hawking worked extensively on the subject of black holes, providing theories for their behavior, including the idea that they emit radiation.

Hawking suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a type of motor neuron disease that left him almost completely paralyzed.

Some of the awards Hawking received for his work include the 1979 Albert Einstein Medal, the Order of the British Empire (Commander) in 1982 and the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics.

A biographical film about Hawking’s life named “The Theory of Everything” was released in 2014.

After his death in 2018, Hawking's ashes were given a final resting place between the graves of Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey, London.

Famous Stephen Hawking quotes include: “There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe and what can be more special than that there is no boundary?”

“I don't believe that the ultimate theory will come by steady work along existing lines. We need something new. We can't predict what that will be or when we will find it because if we knew that, we would have found it already!”

“For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen.”

“It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.”

“I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.”