Steven Hawking Steven William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. He was always interested in science and how things worked. From about the age of 20, he was awarded a first class honors degree in Natural Sciences. After receiving his degree, Steven went to Cambridge, to do research on Cosmology. After receiving his Ph.D., he left the Institute of Astronomy and since then he has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. In the late 1960's, Steven proved that if general relativity is true and the Universe is expanding, a irregularity must have occurred at the birth of the Universe. In 1974, he first recognized a truly remarkable property of black holes, objects from which nothing was supposed to be able to escape. By taking into account quantum mechanics, he was able to show that black holes can radiate energy as particles are created in their vicinity. Dr. Hawking has also worked on the basic laws that govern the universe.
