Brilliant, one of a kind…
“It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.”
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)
the world was blessed with a man like stephen. truly a legend.
Very sad and surprised by the news. He seemed to overcome adversity so well for so long, I just didn’t think about this day coming.
“I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.” - Stephen Hawking
We were lucky to have been able to see Prof. Hawking give public presentations twice at UCSB. My son attended one of those talks and is now majoring in physics. As a grad student in the 1980s, my husband attended at least one physics department colloquium given by Hawking at UCSB.
Truly he was an inspiration to many. RIP.
March 14 – Einstein’s birthday, Hawking’s passing, Pi Day.
So sorry to hear this. Agree that the date of death is ironic.
Certainly a force to be reckoned with. RIP.
Stephen Hawking has died. What a brilliant mind. He will be missed.
His birthdate was also the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s birth.
My favorite Stephen Hawking moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4xibCOeOWQ Watch to the end!
Love that, @mathmom !
In addition to his own fabulous contributions to science and physics, he was also a huge contributor to the field of augmentative communication. He could have been a brilliant person trapped in a non-verbal body, but no…voice out put was something that made it possible for the world to hear his voice.
It also gave a window of communication to the many others who would otherwise have been unable to speak.
“The message of this lecture, is, that black holes ain’t as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things ~can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly, to another universe. So, if you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out.”
http://www.hawking.org.uk/into-a-black-hole.html
RIP. Lightspeed.
Definitely my most memorable undergrad math course was his Brief History of Time lectures, given as a non-examined course in spring 1988 before the book was published. We (and he) had no idea that it would end up being so popular.
In the late 90s, I was watching Nova and thought the young woman speaking about string theory looked awfully familiar. Sure enough, it was Fay Dowker, a British woman who had attended my high school for one year while her dad taught at UT. We had gotten to be good friends - wow, was she brilliant. I looked her up online and discovered that she had done her PhD work under Hawking! Hard to imagine. Two degrees of separation for me! The world is awfully small.