This man, of whom I knew very little except to be vitally aware his perceptive abilities regarding Physics were far beyond those of most of his contemporaries, saw beyond the barriers associated with the scientific community being divided between acceptance of Einstein's General Theory, and "Quantum Mechanics", which grew out of it, and contradicted in various ways. Theory previously stated no matter may emerge from a "Black Hole", a collapsed heavenly star which draws all matter surrounding it into it's interior. Hawking proposed that certain conditions would prevail allowing black holes to emit radiation. He was right, apparently. That's deep enough for now. Save to say we have lost a tremendously important scientific thinker, who battled physical disability for decades, after being given 2 years to live. Frank
brilliant mine cruelly robbed of his motor skills who lived due to his determination and the brilliant skills of the medical world and the care of his family . seems he was quite poorly, more than normal for about 6 years before his death.. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/my-evening-with-stephen-hawking_n_1549993
His intellect was beyond the grasp of most but he was able to explain things so we could understand at least a bit of our universe. He will be missed.
After being diagnosed with ALS when he was around 21 years old, to live an additional 55 years is a feat unto itself much less confirming his place in theoretical cosmology physics and theoretical quantum physics history while dealing with that same crippling infirmity is indeed mind boggling. One other not so well known thing about him and reminiscent of Zig Ziggler, is that toward the end of his stay at Oxford when he was around 50, he fell down a case of stairs and lost his memory. I really haven't seen too many details concerning the length of time it took to recover, but I understand that he soon after took the Mensa acceptance test and passed with a score somewhere between 200-250. As @Frank Sanoica has already provided, Hawking's largest and most singular claim to fame was not only proving that black holes emit radiation in rebuttal of prior theories, but helped provide the instrumentation to detect said radiation. His other works were pretty much co-written with physicists like Hertog, Hartle, James Bardeen, Brandon Carter and Roger Penrose. One other work was a follow-up of work that was initialized by Alan Guth in the early 80's in relation to cosmic inflation. Now, I can easily say that I was / am a fan of his as a physicist, but not really his greatest fan when it came to other subjects. Much like many people who take on the mantle of "celebrity", he offered his stances on the American economy, the republican party, universal reality and design (God), The Paris accord and global warming which to me, are a few topics he delved into that I found disturbing. All that said, everyone is allowed their opinions and I am sure the work he did and the strengths he exhibited will overshadow anything I might have taken ought to. RIP