KNZ NEWS DESK
Cambridge:British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking died, aged 76, at his residence in Cambridge on Wednesday, a family spokesperson said.
He died “peacefully” in the early hours of Wednesday.
“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today,” professor Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim said in a statement carried by Britain’s Press Association news agency.
“He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years.”
The astrophysicist, who was at Cambridge University since 1962, wrote “A Brief History of Time” — one of the most influential scientific works ever.
In 1963, Hawking was detected with the motor neurone disease and was given two years to live. He went on to Cambridge to become a researcher and professorial fellow at Gonville and Caius College.
Last year, Hawking’s PhD thesis was accessed more than two million times “from every corner of the globe” within days of it being made available to the public
(Agencies)
