Stephen William Hawking In 1974, Hawking became a member of the Royal society of London, in 1979 became Lukasovsky a Professor at Cambridge University. This position he held until 2009. Already in the early 1960s, Hawking began to show signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which later led to paralysis. After the diagnosis of the disease in 1963 the doctors believed that he left to live only two and a half years, but the disease has not progressed as quickly, and to use the stroller, he began only in the late 1960-ies. In his research he didn't see much sense due to the disease. But everything changed with his engagement to a girl named Jane Wilde. They were going to get married so he had to get a place. He had to defend his dissertation. So he set to work. To his surprise, he liked it. Early life seemed boring. But the prospect of dying early made him realize that life is worth living. In 1985, Stephen Hawking was seriously ill, he had pneumonia. After a series of operations he underwent tracheotomy, Hawking lost the ability to speak. Friends gave him a speech synthesizer that was installed on his wheelchair. Some mobility was retained, only the index finger on his right hand Hawking. Subsequently, the mobility remained only in a mimic muscle of a cheek, in front of which is fixed the sensor. With it, the physicist controls the computer, allowing him to communicate with others.