Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking was a British theoretical physicist known for his groundbreaking work on black holes and cosmology, and for his bestselling book A Brief History of Time.
Hawking was diagnosed with a rare early-onset form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at age 21 and given just a few years to live, yet he continued his scientific work for over 50 more years, eventually losing the ability to speak and communicating through a computer-assisted voice synthesizer.
His most significant scientific contribution, now known as Hawking radiation, theorized that black holes are not entirely black but emit radiation and can eventually evaporate, bridging quantum mechanics and general relativity.
His 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, made complex cosmology accessible to general readers and became an international bestseller, making Hawking one of the most publicly recognized scientists of his generation.