Stephen Hawking - A Stephen Hawking Biography: The Greatest Scientist of Our TimeDennis William Sciama (1926 - 1999) was a don at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He was one of the most eminent physicists of his time. In 1963 he was informed that he was to receive a new pupil, a young man from Oxford who wished to undertake his doctoral thesis under his tutelage. There was nothing unusual in this. Mentoring new pupils was part and parcel of a university academic’s life. However the new pupil seemed, on the face of it, unremarkable. In fact he had the reputation of a lazy and somewhat difficult student.
In his written exam at Oxford he had achieved neither a first nor a second degree. A first would have entitled him to undertake postgraduate studies at Cambridge; a second at Oxford.
He had to submit to an oral exam, an ordeal that terrified him but nevertheless impressed his examiners who remarked that they faced intelligence greater than there on. After a while Sciama also agreed that he was dealing with a highly potent intellect. This man was only 21 years old and moreover had just been given 2 years to live. His name was Stephen William Hawking. Since then, Stephen Hawking has gone on to become one of the most eminent scientists of his generation, internationally respected and famous for his work. This is his story.