# Featured Scientist - Stephen Hawking

Every month, I shall be featuring a revolutionary scientist for helping you people get to know these great minds better. For the first edition, I feature Stephen William Hawking.

• Who is Stephen Hawking ?

Stephen Hawking ( 8 January 1942- now) is a Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre of Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. He unified general relativity and quantum mechanics to explain Cosmological theories. His works, including the Hawking Radiation, is compared to the works of giants including Einstein and Newton. He is a supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

• He has held the prestigious position of the Lucassian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Previous holders include Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, Paul Dirac, etc.

• He is the author of the bestseller. The Brief History of Time, a popular science book explaining range of subjects in the field of Cosmology, the physics of the Universe as a whole.

• Some cool facts about his student life:

• He was just an average student, but was nicknamed Einstein by his friends for his intelligence.
• As most of us math and science fans, he also was against the system of rote learning.
• As a considerable aptitude towards physics, he liked building working models. He later remarked that this very hobby helped him in research, as "Knowing the Physics of the Universe, is in a way, operating it!"
• His father wanted him to study Medicine initially, and didn't allow him study mathematics in the fear of dearth of mathematical jobs. Hawking later suffered for this very choice of his father.

Another interesting fact, Hawking was born exactly 300 years after the death of the Astronomer and Physicist Galileo Galilei, and one of my friends on Brilliant, Anik Mandal was also born in the same day!

These were some interesting facts about Professor Hawking, hope you enjoyed!

References

• Wikipedia
• My memory, I know a lot about him.

Image Courtesy: NASA

Note by Swapnil Das
4 years, 2 months ago

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

• Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
• Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
• Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.

MarkdownAppears as
*italics* or _italics_ italics
**bold** or __bold__ bold
- bulleted- list
• bulleted
• list
1. numbered2. list
1. numbered
2. list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1paragraph 2

paragraph 1

paragraph 2

[example link](https://brilliant.org)example link
> This is a quote
This is a quote
    # I indented these lines
# 4 spaces, and now they show
# up as a code block.

print "hello world"
# I indented these lines
# 4 spaces, and now they show
# up as a code block.

print "hello world"
MathAppears as
Remember to wrap math in $$ ... $$ or $ ... $ to ensure proper formatting.
2 \times 3 $2 \times 3$
2^{34} $2^{34}$
a_{i-1} $a_{i-1}$
\frac{2}{3} $\frac{2}{3}$
\sqrt{2} $\sqrt{2}$
\sum_{i=1}^3 $\sum_{i=1}^3$
\sin \theta $\sin \theta$
\boxed{123} $\boxed{123}$

Sort by:

Good job! @Swapnil Das

- 4 years, 2 months ago

He was just an average student, but was nicknamed Einstein by his friends for his intelligence.

That is kind of an oxymoron. An average student with higher than average intelligence?!

His father wanted him to study Medicine initially, and didn't allow him study mathematics in the fear of dearth of mathematical jobs. Hawking later suffered for this very choice of his father.

The sad truth is that I've countless acquintances who are also being forced to choose Medicine over Math due to peer pressure and family pressure. This really upsets me. I've talked to them, and what I found was that they chose medicine because they were subconciously manipulated by their parents.

I must say I am proud of Ashley on Brilliant who chose Mathematics herself

As most of us math and science fans, he also was against the system of rote learning.

I wish he had Brilliant.org when he was a teenager.

He unified general relativity and quantum mechanics to explain Cosmological theories.

Are his theories still unchallenged and accepted? Could you tell us more about what his theory was?

Here is another fun fact about Hawking:

Stephen Hawking with Sheldon Cooper, The Hawking Excitation

- 4 years, 2 months ago

Average student: Not a hundred on hundred on student, just gets moderate marks in exams, and gives them just in order to qualify for the next grade.

- 4 years, 2 months ago

Nice note Swaplin!

- 4 years, 2 months ago

This month's featured scientist?

- 4 years, 1 month ago

Coming soon, around 15th of August.

- 4 years, 1 month ago

@Swapnil Das It is great that you made this...........but you should edit this...........We have lost a light from our Universe this year..............

- 2 years, 2 months ago

HE DIED! (weep)

- 1 year, 12 months ago

Hahaha. I like your references :)

- 4 years, 2 months ago

Haha ;)

- 4 years, 2 months ago

I donno if you remember me, but we had a few conversations years ago, so I take the freedom of asking you a question.

• Being a student of CMI, what opinion could you form of its Physics department? I want to pursue my career in mathematical physics, so I think CMI could be a nice option. Please throw some light.

- 1 year, 12 months ago

Noice

- 1 year, 11 months ago