Stephen Hawking (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, astronomer, scientist, and author at the University of Cambridge in England. He studies deep space, how the universe was formed, and black holes. Hawking has largely continued and added to the work of Albert Einstein. Hawking believes it is very unlikely that earth is the only planet in the universe to possess life.
He has received dozens of prestigious awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from the President of the United States. He has had great success as an author, writing books that make complex science easy for non-scientists to understand. His book A Brief History of Time stayed on the best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
He is considered the smartest person alive.
Hawking suffers from a disease known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The disease has slowly paralyzed him over thirty years. He has long been unable to walk, can now no longer speak, and can move very few muscles. He is able to communicate using speech-generating device computer that is attached to a tiny muscle in his pinky finger. In 2015, Hawking's life was the subject of a major Hollywood movie called The Theory of Everything. Hawking is married and has three children.
