Professor Stephen Hawking 1942 - 2018
Professor Stephen Hawking
This week our Famous Scientist is one I actually saw in a bookshop when I worked at the University of Cambridge and who was a brilliant example of our motto of AIM high. He was a scientist who worked as a theoretical physicist and cosmologist at the University of Cambridge but his most famous book, A Brief History of Time, explained so much about the universe, The Big Bang and Black Holes to the rest of the world. His ability to think of challenging questions and then find out answers to them shows how important it is to remain curious.
He was also truly inspirational in the way that he did not allow a diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease prevent him from his work and showed how active his mind continued to be. He celebrated his 65th birthday by experiencing the zero gravity effects of space which the 2 SpaceX astronauts are experiencing right now.
There are also links to one of our previous Famous Scientists, Sir Isaac Newton, as they both had the same job at Cambridge University hundreds of years apart.
Stephen and his daughter Lucy Hawking have also written books for children including Unlocking the Universe for older children through to teenagers which was published in 2020 and the collection George's Secret Key to the Universe.