Stephen Hawking and His World
斯蒂芬·霍金教授是当代享有盛誉的伟人之一，被称为在世的最伟大的科学家，当今的爱因斯坦。他在统一20世纪物理学的两大基础理论—爱因斯坦的相对论和普朗克的量子论方面走出了重要一步。1989年获得英国爵士荣誉称号。他是英国皇家学会学员和美国科学院外籍院士。
霍金教授1942年出生于英国牛津，这一天正好是伽利略的300年忌日。1963年，霍金教授被诊断患有肌肉萎缩症，即运动神经病。1965年获得理论物理学博士学位。1974年3月1日，霍金教授在《自然》上发表论文，阐述了自己的新发现—黑洞是有辐射的。在几个星期内，全世界的物理学家都在讨论他的研究工作（霍金所指的辐射被称为霍金辐射）。霍金的新发现，被认为是多年来理论物理学最重要的进展。该论文被称为“物理学史上最深刻的论文之一”。1975—1976年间，在其获得6项大奖中有伦敦皇家天文学会的埃丁顿勋章、梵蒂冈教皇科学学会十一世勋章、霍普金斯奖、美国丹尼欧海涅曼奖、马克斯韦奖和英国皇家学会的休斯勋章。1978年他获得物理界最有威望的大奖—阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦奖。1979年，被任命为著名的、曾一度为牛顿所任的剑桥大学卢卡逊数学教授。1988年，霍金的惊世之著《时间简史：从大爆炸到黑洞》（A Brief History of Time：from the Big Bang to Black Holes）发行。从研究黑洞出发，探索了宇宙的起源和归宿，解答了人类有史以来一直探索的问题：时间有没有开端，空间有没有边界。这是人类科学史上里程碑式的佳作。该书被译成40余种文字，出版了1000余万册。霍金教授的通俗演讲在国际上也享有盛誉，他的足迹遍布世界各地。他试图通过自己的书籍和通俗演讲，将自己的思想与整个世界交流。2000年初，霍金在美国白宫做了演讲，这是世界之夜（Millenium Evenings）活动的一部分，克林顿总统亲切会见他并向他表示祝贺。2001年10月又一部力作《The Universe in a Nutshell》出版发行。该书是《时间简史》的姐妹篇。在该书中，霍金揭示了自《时间简史》发表以来，理论物理学的伟大突破。
1942-1-8：出生于英国牛津。
1963：被诊断出肌萎缩性侧索硬化症。
1973：首部著作《空时的大型结构》出版。
1974：宣布发现黑洞辐射，成为英国皇家学会会员。
1979：《广义相对论评述：纪念爱因斯坦百年诞辰》出版。
1985：失去语言能力，使用带语音合成器的计算机。
1988：《时间简史：从大爆炸到黑洞》获沃尔夫基金奖。至今销售2500万册。
1993：《黑洞与婴儿宇宙及其它论文》出版。
A Brief History of Him
Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London, but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford, his father's old college. Stephen wanted to do Mathematics, although his father would have preferred medicine. Mathematics was not available at University College, so he did Physics instead. After three years and not very much work he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science.
Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, there being no-one working in that area in Oxford at the time. His supervisor was Denis Sciama, although he had hoped to get Fred Hoyle who was working in Cambridge. After gaining his Ph.D. he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973 Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and since 1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. The chair was founded in 1663 with money left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas, who had been the Member of Parliament for the University. It was first held by Isaac Barrow, and then in 1669 by Isaac Newton.liuxuepaper.com