Born 8 January 1942 in Oxford, EnglandEarned place at Oxford University to read natural science in 1959, before studying for his PhD at CambridgeBy 1963, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and given two years to liveOutlined his theory that black holes emit "Hawking radiation" in 1974In 1979, he became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the Cambridge - a post once held by Sir Isaac NewtonPublished his book A Brief History of Time in 1988, which has sold more than 10 million copiesIn the late 1990s, he was reportedly offered a knighthood, but 10 years later revealed he had turned it down over issues with the government's funding for scienceHis life story was the subject of the 2014 film The Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne
R.I.P Hawkings
