89-708: Robert Willan FRS (12 November 1757 near Sedbergh , Yorkshire , England – 7 April 1812 in Madeira , Portugal) was an English physician, and the founder of dermatology as a medical specialty. Willan was born on 12 November 1757 in Sedbergh, Yorkshire. He was educated at Sedbergh School , and received his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh in 1780. After completing his medical studies, William worked in Darlington until 1783, when he moved to London to serve as physician at
178-460: A viva (oral examination) with the Oxford examiners necessary. Hawking was concerned that he was viewed as a lazy and difficult student. So, when asked at the viva to describe his plans, he said, "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If I receive a Second, I shall stay in Oxford, so I expect you will give me a First." He was held in higher regard than he believed; as Berman commented,
267-418: A "cosmic censorship conjecture" – that there could be no "naked singularities" unclothed within a horizon – was correct. After discovering his concession might have been premature, a new and more refined wager was made. This one specified that such singularities would occur without extra conditions. The same year, Thorne, Hawking and Preskill made another bet, this time concerning
356-735: A Chair (all of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society ). Members of the 10 Sectional Committees change every three years to mitigate in-group bias . Each Sectional Committee covers different specialist areas including: New Fellows are admitted to the Society at a formal admissions day ceremony held annually in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation which reads: "We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote
445-602: A black hole evaporates. This information paradox violates the fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics, and led to years of debate, including " the Black Hole War " with Leonard Susskind and Gerard 't Hooft . Cosmological inflation – a theory proposing that following the Big Bang, the universe initially expanded incredibly rapidly before settling down to a slower expansion – was proposed by Alan Guth and also developed by Andrei Linde . Following
534-458: A book on Euclidean quantum gravity with Gary Gibbons and published a collected edition of his own articles on black holes and the Big Bang. In 1994, at Cambridge's Newton Institute , Hawking and Penrose delivered a series of six lectures that were published in 1996 as "The Nature of Space and Time". In 1997, he conceded a 1991 public scientific wager made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech . Hawking had bet that Penrose's proposal of
623-401: A challenge, and he decided to answer only theoretical physics questions rather than those requiring factual knowledge. A first-class 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 result was on the borderline between first- and second-class honours, making
712-465: A church choir. Hellyer Jones became close to the Hawking family and, by the mid-1980s, he and Jane had developed romantic feelings for each other. According to Jane, her husband was accepting of the situation, stating "he would not object so long as I continued to love him". Jane and Hellyer Jones were determined not to break up the family, and their relationship remained platonic for a long period. By
801-582: A conference in Moscow in October 1981, Hawking and Gary Gibbons organised a three-week Nuffield Workshop in the summer of 1982 on "The Very Early Universe" at Cambridge University, a workshop that focused mainly on inflation theory. Hawking also began a new line of quantum-theory research into the origin of the universe. In 1981 at a Vatican conference, he presented work suggesting that there might be no boundary – or beginning or ending – to
890-438: A documentary on space colonisation, as a 2017 episode of Tomorrow's World . In August 2015, Hawking said that not all information is lost when something enters a black hole and there might be a possibility to retrieve information from a black hole according to his theory. In July 2017, Hawking was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Imperial College London . Hawking's final paper – A smooth exit from eternal inflation? –
979-403: A few months. At that time, younger boys could attend one of the houses. Hawking attended two private (i.e. fee-paying) schools , first Radlett School and from September 1952, St Albans School, Hertfordshire , after passing the eleven-plus a year early. The family placed a high value on education. Hawking's father wanted his son to attend Westminster School , but the 13-year-old Hawking
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#17330858560641068-402: A health-crisis which led to his accepting, albeit reluctantly, some nursing services at home. At the same time, he was also making a transition in his approach to physics, becoming more intuitive and speculative rather than insisting on mathematical proofs. "I would rather be right than rigorous", he told Kip Thorne. In 1981, he proposed that information in a black hole is irretrievably lost when
1157-563: A possible resolution of the fine-tuning question . Hawking continued to travel widely, including trips to Chile, Easter Island , South Africa, Spain (to receive the Fonseca Prize in 2008), Canada, and numerous trips to the United States. For practical reasons related to his disability, Hawking increasingly travelled by private jet, and by 2011 that had become his only mode of international travel. By 2003, consensus among physicists
1246-525: A research fellowship at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge ; he obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology, in March 1966; and his essay "Singularities and the Geometry of Space–Time" shared top honours with one by Penrose to win that year's prestigious Adams Prize . In his work, and in collaboration with Penrose, Hawking extended
1335-460: 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 . 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
1424-412: A theory of top-down cosmology , which says that the universe had not one unique initial state but many different ones, and therefore that it is inappropriate to formulate a theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one particular initial state. Top-down cosmology posits that the present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible histories. In doing so, the theory suggests
1513-406: A tracheotomy in 1985, Hawking required a full-time nurse and nursing care was split across three shifts daily. In the late 1980s, Hawking grew close to one of his nurses, Elaine Mason, to the dismay of some colleagues, caregivers, and family members, who were disturbed by her strength of personality and protectiveness. In February 1990, Hawking told Jane that he was leaving her for Mason and departed
1602-405: A union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics . Hawking was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. He also introduced the notion of a micro black hole . Hawking achieved commercial success with several works of popular science in which he discussed his theories and cosmology in general. His book A Brief History of Time appeared on
1691-506: Is a landmark in the history of dermatology and in medical illustration and contains the first use of the word "lupus" to describe cutaneous tuberculosis . Fellow of the Royal Society of London Fellowship of the Royal Society ( FRS , ForMemRS and HonFRS ) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to
1780-725: Is confirmed by the Council in April, and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May. A candidate is elected if they secure two-thirds of votes of those Fellows voting. An indicative allocation of 18 Fellowships can be allocated to candidates from Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences; and up to 10 from Applied Sciences, Human Sciences and Joint Physical and Biological Sciences. A further maximum of six can be 'Honorary', 'General' or 'Royal' Fellows. Nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by Sectional Committees, each with at least 12 members and
1869-421: Is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society (a proposer and a seconder), who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, which was criticised for supposedly establishing an old boy network and elitist gentlemen's club . The certificate of election (see for example ) includes a statement of the principal grounds on which
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#17330858560641958-713: The Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking was a Fellow of the Royal Society , a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences , and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC 's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons . He died in 2018 at the age of 76, having lived more than 50 years following his diagnosis of motor neurone disease. Hawking
2047-647: The Albert Einstein Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. In 1979, Hawking was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. His inaugural lecture in this role was titled: "Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?" and proposed N = 8 supergravity as the leading theory to solve many of the outstanding problems physicists were studying. His promotion coincided with
2136-543: The Carey Street Public Dispensary until 1803. While working alongside Thomas Bateman , Willan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809. He died on 7 April 1812, in Madeira, Portugal. Following the example of Carl Linnaeus , Willan attempted a taxonomic classification of skin diseases, describing impetigo , lupus , psoriasis , scleroderma , ichthyosis , sycosis , and pemphigus . Willan's portrait
2225-754: The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1985), the Paul Dirac Medal (1987) and, jointly with Penrose, the prestigious Wolf Prize (1988). In the 1989 Birthday Honours , he was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH). He reportedly declined a knighthood in the late 1990s in objection to the UK's science funding policy. Hawking pursued his work in physics: in 1993 he co-edited
2314-585: The Large Hadron Collider . Hawking quickly conceded that he had lost his bet and said that Higgs should win the Nobel Prize for Physics , which he did in 2013. In 2007, Hawking and his daughter Lucy published George's Secret Key to the Universe , a children's book designed to explain theoretical physics in an accessible fashion and featuring characters similar to those in the Hawking family. The book
2403-779: The University of Cambridge . Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world. Hawking was born in Oxford into a family of physicians. In October 1959, at the age of 17, he began his university education at University College, Oxford , where he received a first-class BA degree in physics . In October 1962, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge , where, in March 1966, he obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology . In 1963, at age 21, Hawking
2492-425: The black hole information paradox . Thorne and Hawking argued that since general relativity made it impossible for black holes to radiate and lose information, the mass-energy and information carried by Hawking radiation must be "new", and not from inside the black hole event horizon . Since this contradicted the quantum mechanics of microcausality, quantum mechanics theory would need to be rewritten. Preskill argued
2581-485: The models of physical cosmology developed by Alexander Friedmann , then it must have begun as a singularity. In 1969, Hawking accepted a specially created Fellowship for Distinction in Science to remain at Caius. In 1970, Hawking postulated what became known as the second law of black hole dynamics , that the event horizon of a black hole can never get smaller. With James M. Bardeen and Brandon Carter , he proposed
2670-426: The post-nominal letters FRS . Every year, fellows elect up to ten new foreign members. Like fellows, foreign members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 , there are around 165 foreign members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS . Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to
2759-405: The singularity theorem concepts first explored in his doctoral thesis. This included not only the existence of singularities but also the theory that the universe might have started as a singularity. Their joint essay was the runner-up in the 1968 Gravity Research Foundation competition. In 1970, they published a proof that if the universe obeys the general theory of relativity and fits any of
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2848-455: The 1980s, Hawking's marriage had been strained for many years. Jane felt overwhelmed by the intrusion into their family life of the required nurses and assistants. The impact of his celebrity status was challenging for colleagues and family members, while the prospect of living up to a worldwide fairytale image was daunting for the couple. Hawking's views of religion also contrasted with her strong Christian faith and resulted in tension. After
2937-638: The PhD. As required by Cambridge University policy, Hawking retired as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 2009. Despite suggestions that he might leave the United Kingdom as a protest against public funding cuts to basic scientific research, Hawking worked as director of research at the Cambridge University Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. On 28 June 2009, as a tongue-in-cheek test of his 1992 conjecture that travel into
3026-439: The Royal Society has been described by The Guardian as "the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar " with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows (FRS), honorary (HonFRS) and foreign members (ForMemRS) are elected annually in late April or early May, from a pool of around 700 proposed candidates each year. New Fellows can only be nominated by existing Fellows for one of
3115-618: The Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1974. He worked with a friend on the faculty, Kip Thorne , and engaged him in a scientific wager about whether the X-ray source Cygnus X-1 was a black hole. The wager was an "insurance policy" against the proposition that black holes did not exist. Hawking acknowledged that he had lost
3204-655: The Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future". Since 2014, portraits of Fellows at the admissions ceremony have been published without copyright restrictions in Wikimedia Commons under a more permissive Creative Commons license which allows wider re-use. In addition to the main fellowships of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS & HonFRS), other fellowships are available which are applied for by individuals, rather than through election. These fellowships are research grant awards and holders are known as Royal Society Research Fellows . In addition to
3293-951: The Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador , El Salvador, the Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge, and the Stephen Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute in Canada. Appropriately, given Hawking's association with time, he unveiled the mechanical "Chronophage" (or time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in September 2008. During his career, Hawking supervised 39 successful PhD students. One doctoral student did not successfully complete
3382-458: The UK, and it proved to be an extraordinary success, rising quickly to the top of best-seller lists in both countries and remaining there for months. The book was translated into many languages, and as of 2009, has sold an estimated 9 million copies. Media attention was intense, and a Newsweek magazine-cover and a television special both described him as "Master of the Universe". Success led to significant financial rewards, but also
3471-446: The United States several times for conferences and physics-related visits. Jane began a PhD programme through Westfield College in medieval Spanish poetry (completed in 1981). The couple had three children: Robert, born May 1967, Lucy , born November 1970, and Timothy, born April 1979. Hawking rarely discussed his illness and physical challenges—even, in a precedent set during their courtship, with Jane. His disabilities meant that
3560-481: The academic work "ridiculously easy". His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said, "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it." A change occurred during his second and third years when, according to Berman, 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
3649-524: The award of Fellowship (FRS, HonFRS & ForMemRS) and the Research Fellowships described above, several other awards, lectures and medals of the Royal Society are also given. Stephen Hawking 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
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3738-441: The bet in 1990, a bet that was the first of several he was to make with Thorne and others. Hawking had maintained ties to Caltech, spending a month there almost every year since this first visit. Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a more academically senior post, as reader in gravitational physics. The mid-to-late 1970s were a period of growing public interest in black holes and the physicists who were studying them. Hawking
3827-537: The case of a young Englishman with an eating disorder who died in 1786 after fasting for 78 days. A copy of one of his works was translated into German and published in Breslau in 1799. The English version has been lost. In 1798, Willan described the occupational disease psoriasis diffusa, which affects the hands and arms of bakers, and in 1799, he first described the exanthematous rash of childhood known as erythema infectiosum . Willan's 1808 book, On Cutaneous Diseases
3916-597: The cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000), Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015). Honorary Fellows are entitled to use
4005-419: The challenges of celebrity status. Hawking travelled extensively to promote his work, and enjoyed partying into the late hours. A difficulty refusing the invitations and visitors left him limited time for work and his students. Some colleagues were resentful of the attention Hawking received, feeling it was due to his disability. He received further academic recognition, including five more honorary degrees,
4094-588: 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. During one of Hawking's father's frequent absences working in Africa,
4183-517: The engagement gave him "something to live for". The two were married on 14 July 1965 in their shared hometown of St Albans. The couple resided in Cambridge, within Hawking's walking distance to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). During their first years of marriage, Jane lived in London during the week as she completed her degree at Westfield College . They travelled to
4272-453: The examiners "were intelligent enough to realise they were talking to someone far cleverer than most of themselves". After receiving a first-class BA degree in physics and completing a trip to Iran with a friend, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge , in October 1962. Hawking's first year as a doctoral student was difficult. He was initially disappointed to find that he had been assigned Dennis William Sciama , one of
4361-458: The fellowships described below: Every year, up to 52 new fellows are elected from the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations , and Ireland, which make up around 90% of the society. Each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use
4450-422: The film to be scientific rather than biographical, but he was persuaded otherwise. The film, while a critical success, was not widely released. A popular-level collection of essays, interviews, and talks titled Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays was published in 1993, and a six-part television series Stephen Hawking's Universe and a companion book appeared in 1997. As Hawking insisted, this time
4539-497: The first messages Hawking produced with his speech-generating device was a request for his assistant to help him finish writing A Brief History of Time . Peter Guzzardi, his editor at Bantam, pushed him to explain his ideas clearly in non-technical language, a process that required many revisions from an increasingly irritated Hawking. The book was published in April 1988 in the US and in June in
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#17330858560644628-623: The first of many students who fulfilled this role. The family spent a generally happy and stimulating year in Pasadena. Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a new home and a new job, as reader . Don Page , with whom Hawking had begun a close friendship at Caltech, arrived to work as the live-in graduate student assistant. With Page's help and that of a secretary, Jane's responsibilities were reduced so she could return to her doctoral thesis and her new interest in singing. Around December 1977, Jane met organist Jonathan Hellyer Jones when singing in
4717-507: The focus was entirely on science. Hawking continued his writings for a popular audience, publishing The Universe in a Nutshell in 2001, and A Briefer History of Time , which he wrote in 2005 with Leonard Mlodinow to update his earlier works with the aim of making them accessible to a wider audience, and God Created the Integers , which appeared in 2006. Along with Thomas Hertog at CERN and Jim Hartle, from 2006 on Hawking developed
4806-525: The founders of modern cosmology, as a supervisor rather than the noted astronomer Fred Hoyle , and he found his training in mathematics inadequate for work in general relativity and cosmology. After being diagnosed with motor neurone disease , Hawking fell into a depression – though his doctors advised that he continue with his studies, he felt there was little point. His disease progressed more slowly than doctors had predicted. Although Hawking had difficulty walking unsupported, and his speech
4895-420: The four laws of black hole mechanics , drawing an analogy with thermodynamics . To Hawking's irritation, Jacob Bekenstein , a graduate student of John Wheeler , went further—and ultimately correctly—to apply thermodynamic concepts literally. In the early 1970s, Hawking's work with Carter, Werner Israel, and David C. Robinson strongly supported Wheeler's no-hair theorem , one that states that no matter what
4984-404: The framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation . Initially, Hawking radiation was controversial. By the late 1970s, and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a major breakthrough in theoretical physics. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by
5073-530: The good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from
5162-594: The help of the mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta , they built a computer from clock parts, an old telephone switchboard and other recycled components. Although known at school as "Einstein", Hawking was not initially successful academically. With time, he began to show considerable aptitude for scientific subjects and, inspired by Tahta, decided to study mathematics at university. Hawking's father advised him to study medicine, concerned that there were few jobs for mathematics graduates. He also wanted his son to attend University College, Oxford , his own alma mater . As it
5251-1526: The improvement of natural knowledge , including mathematics , engineering science , and medical science ". Fellowship of the Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence, is a significant honour. It has been awarded to many eminent scientists throughout history, including Isaac Newton (1672), Benjamin Franklin (1756), Charles Babbage (1816), Michael Faraday (1824), Charles Darwin (1839), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), Jagadish Chandra Bose (1920), Albert Einstein (1921), Paul Dirac (1930), Winston Churchill (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1945), Dorothy Hodgkin (1947), Alan Turing (1951), Lise Meitner (1955), Satyendra Nath Bose (1958), and Francis Crick (1959). More recently, fellowship has been awarded to Stephen Hawking (1974), David Attenborough (1983), Tim Hunt (1991), Elizabeth Blackburn (1992), Raghunath Mashelkar (1998), Tim Berners-Lee (2001), Venki Ramakrishnan (2003), Atta-ur-Rahman (2006), Andre Geim (2007), Bai Chunli (2014), James Dyson (2015), Ajay Kumar Sood (2015), Subhash Khot (2017), Elon Musk (2018), Elaine Fuchs (2019) and around 8,000 others in total, including over 280 Nobel Laureates since 1900. As of October 2018 , there are approximately 1,689 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members, of whom 85 are Nobel Laureates. Fellowship of
5340-427: The need to finance his children's education and home-expenses, he decided in 1982 to write a popular book about the universe that would be accessible to the general public. Instead of publishing with an academic press, he signed a contract with Bantam Books , a mass-market publisher, and received a large advance for his book. A first draft of the book, called A Brief History of Time , was completed in 1984. One of
5429-478: The opposite, that since quantum mechanics suggests that the information emitted by a black hole relates to information that fell in at an earlier time, the concept of black holes given by general relativity must be modified in some way. Hawking also maintained his public profile, including bringing science to a wider audience. A film version of A Brief History of Time , directed by Errol Morris and produced by Steven Spielberg , premiered in 1992. Hawking had wanted
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#17330858560645518-531: The original material from which a black hole is created, it can be completely described by the properties of mass , electrical charge and rotation. His essay titled "Black Holes" won the Gravity Research Foundation Award in January 1971. Hawking's first book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time , written with George Ellis , was published in 1973. Beginning in 1973, Hawking moved into
5607-438: The past is effectively impossible, Hawking held a party open to all, complete with hors d'oeuvres and iced champagne, but publicised the party only after it was over so that only time-travellers would know to attend; as expected, nobody showed up to the party. On 20 July 2015, Hawking helped launch Breakthrough Initiatives , an effort to search for extraterrestrial life . Hawking created Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth ,
5696-487: The physics community about the prevailing theories of the creation of the universe: the Big Bang and Steady State theories. Inspired by Roger Penrose 's theorem of a spacetime singularity in the centre of black holes, Hawking applied the same thinking to the entire universe; and, during 1965, he wrote his thesis on this topic. Hawking's thesis was approved in 1966. There were other positive developments: Hawking received
5785-509: The post nominal letters HonFRS . Statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough (1983) and John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne (1991). The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British royal family for election as Royal Fellow of the Royal Society . As of 2023 there are four royal fellows: Elizabeth II
5874-546: The proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations made each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process and appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to the Fellowship. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates
5963-453: The responsibilities of home and family rested firmly on his wife's shoulders, leaving him more time to think about physics. Upon his appointment in 1974 to a year-long position at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California , Jane proposed that a graduate or post-doctoral student live with them and help with his care. Hawking accepted, and Bernard Carr travelled with them as
6052-562: The rest of the family spent four months in Mallorca visiting his mother's friend Beryl and her husband, the poet Robert Graves . Hawking began his schooling at the Byron House School in Highgate , London. He later blamed its " progressive methods " for his failure to learn to read while at the school. In St Albans, the eight-year-old Hawking attended St Albans High School for Girls for
6141-406: The same book he suggested that the existence of God was not necessary to explain the origin of the universe. Later discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that the existence of God was also compatible with an open universe. Further work by Hawking in the area of arrows of time led to the 1985 publication of a paper theorising that if the no-boundary proposition were correct, then when
6230-738: The study of quantum gravity and quantum mechanics . His work in this area was spurred by a visit to Moscow and discussions with Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich and Alexei Starobinsky , whose work showed that according to the uncertainty principle , rotating black holes emit particles. To Hawking's annoyance, his much-checked calculations produced findings that contradicted his second law, which claimed black holes could never get smaller, and supported Bekenstein's reasoning about their entropy . His results, which Hawking presented from 1974, showed that black holes emit radiation, known today as Hawking radiation , which may continue until they exhaust their energy and evaporate . Initially, Hawking radiation
6319-501: The transformation resulted from his decision to join the college boat club, the University College Boat Club , where he coxed 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. Hawking estimated that he studied about 1,000 hours during his three years at Oxford. These unimpressive study habits made sitting his finals
6408-419: The universe began." Hawking did not rule out the existence of a Creator, asking in A Brief History of Time "Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence?", also stating "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God"; in his early work, Hawking spoke of God in a metaphorical sense. In
6497-595: The universe stopped expanding and eventually collapsed, time would run backwards. A paper by Don Page and independent calculations by Raymond Laflamme led Hawking to withdraw this concept. Honours continued to be awarded: in 1981 he was awarded the American Franklin Medal , and in the 1982 New Year Honours appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). These awards did not significantly change Hawking's financial status, and motivated by
6586-530: The universe. Hawking subsequently developed the research in collaboration with Jim Hartle , and in 1983 they published a model, known as the Hartle–Hawking state . It proposed that prior to the Planck epoch , the universe had no boundary in space-time; before the Big Bang, time did not exist and the concept of the beginning of the universe is meaningless. The initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models
6675-402: Was almost unintelligible, an initial diagnosis that he had only two years to live proved unfounded. With Sciama's encouragement, he returned to his work. Hawking started developing a reputation for brilliance and brashness when he publicly challenged the work of Hoyle and his student Jayant Narlikar at a lecture in June 1964. When Hawking began his doctoral studies, there was much debate in
6764-487: Was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford to Frank and Isobel Eileen Hawking ( née Walker). 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
6853-402: Was controversial. By the late 1970s and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a significant breakthrough in theoretical physics. Hawking was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1974 , a few weeks after the announcement of Hawking radiation. At the time, he was one of the youngest scientists to become a Fellow. Hawking was appointed to
6942-423: Was diagnosed with an early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease that gradually, over decades, paralysed him. After the loss of his speech, he communicated through a speech-generating device , initially through use of a handheld switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. Hawking's scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in
7031-472: Was explained by examining all the alternative histories of universes, with the information loss in those with black holes being cancelled out by those without such loss. In January 2014, he called the alleged loss of information in black holes his "biggest blunder". As part of another longstanding scientific dispute, Hawking had emphatically argued, and bet, that the Higgs boson would never be found. The particle
7120-579: Was followed by sequels in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2016. In 2002, following a UK-wide vote, the BBC included Hawking in their list of the 100 Greatest Britons . He was awarded the Copley Medal from the Royal Society (2006), the Presidential Medal of Freedom , which is America's highest civilian honour (2009), and the Russian Special Fundamental Physics Prize (2013). Several buildings have been named after him, including
7209-453: Was growing that Hawking was wrong about the loss of information in a black hole. In a 2004 lecture in Dublin, he conceded his 1997 bet with Preskill, but described his own, somewhat controversial solution to the information paradox problem, involving the possibility that black holes have more than one topology . In the 2005 paper he published on the subject, he argued that the information paradox
7298-435: Was ill on the day of the scholarship examination. His family could not afford the school fees without the financial aid of a scholarship, so Hawking remained at St Albans. A positive consequence was that Hawking remained close to a group of friends with whom he enjoyed board games, the manufacture of fireworks, model aeroplanes and boats, and long discussions about Christianity and extrasensory perception . From 1958 on, with
7387-421: Was not a Royal Fellow, but provided her patronage to the society, as all reigning British monarchs have done since Charles II of England . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1951) was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination and a period of peer-reviewed selection. Each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership
7476-436: Was not possible to read mathematics there at the time, Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry. Despite his headmaster's advice to wait until the next year, Hawking was awarded a scholarship after taking the examinations in March 1959. Hawking began his university education at University College, Oxford , in October 1959 at the age of 17. For the first eighteen months, he was bored and lonely – he found
7565-470: Was posthumously published in the Journal of High Energy Physics on 27 April 2018. Hawking met his future wife, Jane Wilde , at a party in 1962. The following year, Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease . In October 1964, the couple became engaged to marry, aware of the potential challenges that lay ahead due to Hawking's shortened life expectancy and physical limitations. Hawking later said that
7654-403: Was proposed to exist as part of the Higgs field theory by Peter Higgs in 1964. Hawking and Higgs engaged in a heated and public debate over the matter in 2002 and again in 2008, with Higgs criticising Hawking's work and complaining that Hawking's "celebrity status gives him instant credibility that others do not have". The particle was discovered in July 2012 at CERN following construction of
7743-693: Was regularly interviewed for print and television. He also received increasing academic recognition of his work. In 1975, he was awarded both the Eddington Medal and the Pius XI Gold Medal , and in 1976 the Dannie Heineman Prize , the Maxwell Medal and Prize and the Hughes Medal . He was appointed a professor with a chair in gravitational physics in 1977. The following year he received
7832-517: Was replaced with a region akin to the North Pole. One cannot travel north of the North Pole, but there is no boundary there – it is simply the point where all north-running lines meet and end. Initially, the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe , which had implications about the existence of God. As Hawking explained, "If the universe has no boundaries but is self-contained... then God would not have had any freedom to choose how
7921-622: Was reproduced on the cover of the British Journal of Dermatology for many years. Willan and Bateman working together provided the world's first attempt to classify skin diseases from an anatomical standpoint. In 1790, Willan received the Fothergill Gold Medal from the Medical Society of London for his classification of skin diseases. In the same year, he published an account entitled "A Remarkable Case of Abstinence", which detailed
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