Birthday: January 8, 1942
Biography: A British theoretical physicist known for his work on black holes and cosmology, as well as his popular science books.
Accomplishments:
Hawking Radiation (1974): Predicted that black holes emit radiation, leading to the theory of black hole evaporation.
A Brief History of Time (1988): Published a best-selling book that explained complex scientific concepts to a general audience.
Singularity Theorems (1970): Worked with Roger Penrose to show that the universe began with a singularity.
No-Boundary Proposal (1983): Proposed with James Hartle that the universe has no boundaries in imaginary time.
Fundamental Contributions to Quantum Gravity: Integrated general relativity with quantum mechanics.
Hawking proposed that black holes are not entirely black but emit radiation due to quantum effects near the event horizon. This phenomenon suggests that black holes can eventually evaporate and disappear, a groundbreaking insight linking quantum mechanics and general relativity.
This best-selling book made complex concepts like black holes, the Big Bang, and quantum mechanics accessible to a general audience, significantly raising public interest in cosmology.
Along with Roger Penrose, Hawking proved that singularities (points of infinite density) are a generic feature of General Relativity, implying that the universe began with a Big Bang singularity.
With James Hartle, Hawking proposed that the universe is finite but unbounded in imaginary time, suggesting a self-contained universe without a beginning or end in the traditional sense.
Hawking's work aimed to unify quantum mechanics with General Relativity, advancing the understanding of how the two theories can coexist and what this means for the nature of reality.