Explaining the Universe
Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford on 8 January 1942. After passing the eleven-plus, he was admitted to St Albans School where classmates nicknamed him Einstein.
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special."
Steven Hawking
Reframing Time and Space
As we introduce our new Innovation In Science series, Stephen Hawking is celebrated on a UK coin for the very first time.
A Brief History of Time
Thinking bigger, Hawking began to consider the universe in its entirety. His genius lay in uniting different fields: gravitation, cosmology, quantum theory, thermodynamics and information theory.
A Great Ambassador
Stephen Hawking’s genius lay not just in uniting different fields but making science accessible for all. His wit and unconventional style helped to make complex topics interesting and relatable.
The Design and the Designer
“Stephen Hawking made difficult subjects accessible, engaging and relatable and this is what I wanted to portray in my design, which is inspired by a lecture he gave in Chile in 2008.”
