Stephen Hawking

When Stephen Hawking was growing up in London, he didn’t do particularly well at school. His classmates called him “Einstein” because he was always wondering about the universe. When it came to his homework, though, his teachers were not impressed. Hawking turned out to be one of the greatest minds in the history of astronomy.

Hawking was born in 1942. His father wanted him to study medicine at Oxford University, but Stephen was more interested in math. He ended up with a degree in natural sciences, which included physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. While he was in college, he began to feel weak and clumsy. The symptoms got worse, so he saw a doctor. He was told he had a disease that would eat away at his nervous system. There was no cure.