Stephen Hawking Facts for Kids

Stephen Hawking was one of the most important scientists of the last 100 years. Find out who he was, what he achieved and why it matters.

Who was Stephen Hawking?

Stephen William Hawking was a celebrated cosmologist and physicist who published groundbreaking research.

He was born in 1942 and died in 2018 aged 76. For most of his adult life, he had early-onset MND (Motor-Neurone Disease). This caused lots of mobility issues and made it hard for him to speak.

His 1988 book A Brief History of Time was a bestseller. It discussed the origins of the universe and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Top 11 Facts about Stephen Hawking for Kids

1. He struggled at school and his teachers thought he was lazy.

2. His family travelled around in a converted taxi.

3. At university, he used a wheelchair. He even ran over people’s toes!

4. Hawking was an atheist and believed in science rather than God.

5. He was born exactly 300 years after Galileo died, and he passed away on Einstein’s birthday.

6. His friends gave him the nickname of ‘Einstein.’

7. He made appearances in TV shows and films, including Star Trek and The Simpsons.

8. He had 3 children and 3 grandchildren.

9. In 1982 the Queen awarded him the title of CBE: Commander of the British Empire.

10. His dad wanted him to become a doctor, because there weren’t many jobs in maths.

11. He wrote five children’s books with his daughter, Lucy.

Timeline

Black Hole

What did Stephen Hawking discover?

His most famous findings come from his research into black holes.

Originally, he thought that black holes could never decrease in size – even if they collided.

But in 1970, University student Jakob Bekenstein challenged this idea.

After this, Hawking changed his mind and published new research about energy particles.

The theory is now called ‘Hawking radiation’.

Why do Hawking’s discoveries matter?

The theory of Hawking radiation gives us key clues about how matter – or all physical material – gets created.

He said that the Big Bang contained lots of tiny black holes, which exploded under intense pressure.

Still, no one knows what happened to the matter in those black holes. But this is one of the many questions his research has raised.

His research has helped guide scientists toward discovering ‘the theory of everything’: a combination of quantum mechanics and relativity that, if found, would explain all physical matter in the Universe.

In short, he completely changed the way we think about black holes.

What were Stephen Hawking’s most famous works?

Hawking’s most famous book is A Brief History of Time (1988). In it, he talks about black holes and the creation of the universe.

The book was on The Times bestseller for five years. It’s the book that made him world-famous!

Hawking didn’t finish his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, before he died. So, his colleagues at the Hawking estate finished it for him.

Stephen Hawking and Barack Obama

Was Stephen Hawking married?

Stephen Hawking got married twice. He met his first wife, Jane Wilde, at a party in 1962. They married in 1965 and were together for 25 years before they divorced in 1990.

His second wife, Elaine Mason, was a nurse who helped Stephen with his illness. He married her in 1995 and they divorced in 2006.

Did Stephen Hawking have children?

Hawking had 3 children, all with his first wife Jane. They were:

Robert Hawking – born May 1967.
Lucy Hawking – born November 1969.
Timothy Hawking – born April 1979.

What films and TV shows did Stephen Hawking appear in?

He played himself on The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek, and has appeared as a cartoon in Family Guy and Futurama.

Actor Eddie Redmayne played him in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything. It tells the story of his first marriage and received five Oscar nominations.

Stephen Hawking lived the majority of his life in the public eye. He appeared in many books, TV shows and films in his career.