On the 8th of January 2012 a man who discovered at 21 that he had motor neurone disease, which usually means a few years' degeneration then death, celebrated his 70th birthday. Stephen Hawking was born January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England. Even as a child, he exhibited a fascination for mathematics, science and the sky. At age 21, while studying cosmology at Cambridge, Stephen was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In the two years after this live changing announcement; Stephen went from being a student that scraped through, to undeniably the world’s most famous living scientist. Stephen work is done in the fields of, Applied mathematics, Theoretical physics, Cosmology. He's known for Black holes, Theoretical cosmology, Quantum gravityand Hawking radiation. Stephen has published four books of his own and three children’s books with his daughter Lucy. He has been married twice, have three children and three grandchildren.“My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all” – Stephen HawkingFor greater details about Stephen Hawking, you'll want to read this biography. This is a short and concise biography.