Factfile: Stephen Hawking
*Born 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England
*Earned place at Oxford University to read natural science in 1959, before studying for his PhD at Cambridge
*By 1963, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and given two years to live
*Outlined his theory that black holes emit "Hawking radiation" in 1974
*In 1979, he became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge - a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton
Published his book A Brief History of Time in 1988, which has sold more than 10 million copies
*In the late 1990s, he was reportedly offered a knighthood, but 10 years later revealed he had turned it down over issues with the government's funding for science