Born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England, Stephen Hawking was one of the most celebrated scientists of his age. The man, who was struck with the traumatic motor neurone disease at the age of 21, was left paralysed for life but left no stone unturned to contribute to science, as he was known to discover the phenomenon which became known as Hawking radiation, where black holes leak energy and fade to nothing. He was renowned for his extraordinary capacity to visualise scientific solutions without calculation or experiment. But it was perhaps his "theory of everything", suggesting that the universe evolves according to well-defined laws, that attracted most attention.

His outstanding book, A Brief History of Time, became a best-seller with more than 10 million sold-out copies, while he also appeared in a number of popular television shows by lending his synthesised voice for various recordings. On March 14, 2018, 76-year-old Hawking peacefully died at his home in Cambridge, England.