RIP Stephen Hawking
It is with great sadness that College notes the passing of Professor Stephen Hawking – Univ OM (1959, Physics) and Honorary Fellow.
Professor Hawking’s tutor at Univ was Robert “Bobby” Berman, who was Physics Fellow from 1955-83. As noted in Kitty Ferguson’s Stephen Hawking: His Life and Work, Berman observed of Hawking: “It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it.”
![Stephen Hawking Admissions Register](https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Stephen-Hawking-Univ-Admissions-Register-300x190.jpg)
Univ Admissions Register
Perfectly summing up Hawking’s early genius, Berman also said: “I taught Stephen in his first year; in his second and third years he taught me”.
Hawking was also an active and enthusiastic member of University College Boat Club, where he coxed. He maintained a keen and lifelong interest in Univ and returned here on numerous occasions, including a visit in 2016, when he met with a small group of our current Physics students.
His daughter, Lucy, was also a Univite (1989, Modern Languages), and together with her father they wrote a number of highly acclaimed children’s books on Science.
Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time, and a full obituary will be published here in due course
Published: 14 March 2018