KATHMANDU: British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76 on Tuesday, according to the UK Press Association.

Born on January 8, 1942, Hawking later went on to become a pioneer theoretical physicist and a known cosmologist of our times. He was also the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge.

His theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation earned the name Hawking Radiation. A supporter of the many-world's interpretation of quantum mechanics, he set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Hawking had authored A Brief History of Time which went on to become an international bestseller. His other books for the general reader include A Briefer History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universes, and The Universe in a Nutshell among others.

He has also co-authored children's book, George's Secret Key to the Universe, with his daughter Lucy Hawking and Christophe Galfard in 2007. The sequels, George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt, George and the Big Bang, George and the Unbreakable Code and George and the Blue Moon followed in the later years.

An early onset of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative motor neuron disease, gradually paralysed him over the decades. He communicated using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech generating device.

Hawking was married to Jane Wilde from 1965 till their divorce in 1995. Following the divorce, he married Elaine Mason, his nurse, which also ended in 2006. After the divorce, he continued a cordial relation with his first wife and their three children.

In the 2014 movie The Theory of Everything, actor Eddie Redmayne had portrayed Hawking on-screen, for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor that year.

This movie was based on a revised version of Jane Wilde's book, Music to Move the Stars, called Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen.

From 1979 to 2009 he held the post of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663, according to his website.

The Himalayan Times offers its tribute to the 'star-cosmologist'!!!