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Stephen William Hawking

by a Guest

Imagine being in a wheelchair and talking through a computer. You are now in the life of Professor Stephen Hawking. I chose Stephen Hawking because he is a great example of bravery, and because he lives everyday of his life with a life altering disease and still continues his research. Stephen Hawking is a great man who teaches everyone that anything is possible.

Stephen after he graduated from Oxford (http://www.stephenhawking.com)
Stephen after he graduated from Oxford (http://www.stephenhawking.com)

Stephen lived in North London, but was born in Oxford. During World War II, it was considered much safer to have a baby in Oxford. When he was 8 his family moved to St. Albans, and he attended St. Albans School when he turned 11. At age 17, Stephen attended University College, Oxford, where his father used to go. While at Oxford, Stephen’s father wanted him to take up a career in medicine, but Stephen wanted to take mathematics. Mathematics wasn’t available at Oxford, so he decided to go with physics. After 3 years and not much work, Stephen was awarded the first class honor degree in Natural Science.

After earning his degree in Natural Science, Stephen went on to Cambridge to study Cosmology because nobody was working in that field at Oxford. While at Cambridge, Stephen fell once or twice for no reason at all. He started to get clumsy and did not know why. He went to the doctors to see what was the matter, and he ended up being examined and tested by numerous doctors. He finally found out that he had been diagnosed with an incurable disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is an incurable disease that works its way up through the body, destroying the ability to move. Knowing he had this disease, Stephen still continued to work on his research.

Stephen met and became engaged to Jane Wilde. He needed to support his family, so he decided to get a job. He became a Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius, and then went on to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and has held the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics ever since. The chair was first funded by Reverend Henry Lucas’ will. The reverend was a Member of Parliament for the University. The chair was first held by Isaac Barrow, and then by Isaac Newton. Stephen Hawking is a recipient of many awards, medals, and prizes and is a Fellow of The Royal Society and Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Stephen Hawking (http://www.stephenhawking.com)
Stephen Hawking (http://www.stephenhawking.com)

In 1974 Stephen was still able to feed himself and manage most of the things he had to do even though he had ALS. His wife, Jane, was busy managing 3 children and helping Stephen with the help of a student. In 1980, Stephen was receiving an hour or 2 of assistance from nurses in the morning and evening, which helped him get ready for the day and go to bed. By 1985, Stephen had a case of pneumonia which required an operation in order for him to survive. While the operation was successful, it took away Stephen’s ability to speak. A computer expert in California named Walt Woltosz heard about Stephen and made a computer program called Equalizer. It allowed Stephen to make a sentence with a series of menus and send it to a voice synthesizer, which says it. The program can be controlled either by hand, or by eye movements. At first it was only used as a desktop computer, but David Mason from Cambridge Adaptive Communication fitted a portable computer to Stephen’s electric wheelchair.

Stephen Hawking is a hero in my opinion. The fact that he has a life altering disease and still continues to teach people and give lectures is amazing. He may not be rescuing other people, but he is teaching people instead.

Page created on 11/10/2004 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 11/10/2004 12:00:00 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.

Related Links

Stephen Hawking Web page - The Stephen Hawking Web page describes Stephen's life in his own words.
Stephen Hawking's Universe
A Science Odyssey - Read a biography about Stephen Hawking.