Stephen Hawking dies aged 76

The visionary cosmologist spent his life bringing science to the masses

“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today,” announced Stephen Hawking’s children Lucy, Robert and Tim in a statement on 14 March. “He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. He once said: ‘It would not be much of a Universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”

Hawking’s funeral took place in Cambridge on 31 March and his ashes will be interred in Westminster Abbey – alongside such other great British scientists as Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton – in a ceremony later this year.

Hawking gained his PhD from Cambridge in 1966, despite the onset of motor neurone disease. He went on to apply his theories about space-time singularities and black holes to the entire Universe, leading to the first mathematical examination of the Big Bang theory.

Though Hawking continued to make great cosmological breakthroughs, he is perhaps best known for his mission to make those discoveries accessible to the public. In 1988, Hawking published his first book about his work, A Brief

History of Time, which spent a record-breaking 237 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

Following the book’s success, Hawking continued to communicate complex theories about our Universe to a global audience. He also regularly gave lectures and interviews, wrote more books and appeared on such diverse television shows such as Star Trek: The Next

Generation and The Simpsons. In his later years, Hawking used his celebrity to promote awareness of scientific issues including the dangers of artificial intelligence, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and the need for humanity to become a multi-planetary species.

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