Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking had 'Lucknow connection'

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who made the world fascinated by his theories had a Lucknow connection as his father Frank Hawking, who was the head of the National Institute for Medical Research in England, lived in the state capital in the late 1950s.

Lucknow: Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who made the world fascinated by his theories and lived his life battling Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), had a Lucknow connection. His father Frank Hawking, who was the head of the National Institute for Medical Research in England, lived in the state capital in the late 1950s when the young Hawking visited India for the short trip to Lucknow in 1959- three years before he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a motor neuron disease that bound him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Frank Hawking worked with the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), which was then situated at Chattar Manzil. Stephen’s sister also studied at a school in Lucknow. Stephen also wrote about his Lucknow connection in his memoir ‘My Brief History’, published by Bantam Press. He also mentioned his visit to Srinagar, J&K, and his stay in a houseboat. This was in 1959 when he was preparing to apply to Oxford University.

Hawking visited India for the last time in 2001 to attend a conference during which he had delivered lectures in Mumbai and Delhi and met the then President KR Narayanan. Director of Regional Science City of Lucknow Muinuddin Ansari said, "Three years ago an exhibition was organised at Science City where detailed information about Stephen Hawking was displayed, but for now it has been removed. But, whenever students from science background visit the place we will display a show based on the biography of Stephen Hawking."

Born on January 8, 1942, Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21 and was told by doctors that Hawking had a short time to live, but he, not just managed to survive, but also listed himself as one the most influential people of the 20th and 21st centuries.