10 Shocking Facts About Young Stephen Hawking: The Unmotivated Student Who Defied Death At 21

The legacy of Stephen Hawking, the world's most recognizable scientist since Einstein, is often defined by his later life: the iconic voice synthesizer, the groundbreaking work on black holes, and his decades-long battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). However, the story of the young Stephen Hawking—the unmotivated, brilliant, and surprisingly social student—is a fascinating, lesser-known chapter that holds the key to understanding his ultimate triumph over adversity. This deep dive, updated for December 2025, explores the formative years before the diagnosis that changed everything, revealing a complex personality and a mind on the verge of revolutionizing modern cosmology.

Before becoming the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Stephen Hawking was just a young man grappling with academic expectations, social awkwardness, and a deep-seated curiosity about the universe. His early life was characterized by a casual brilliance and a notable lack of discipline, a stark contrast to the relentless focus he would later display. It was a sudden, devastating health crisis at the age of 21 that forced this young scholar to truly confront his mortality and channel his latent genius into the work that would define his life and shape our understanding of space and time.

Stephen Hawking: Early Life and Biographical Profile

• Full Name: Stephen William Hawking
• Date of Birth: January 8, 1942 (Born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's death)
• Place of Birth: Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
• Date of Death: March 14, 2018 (Age 76)
• Parents: Frank Hawking (Research Biologist) and Isobel Hawking (Eileen Isobel Hawking)
• Siblings: Two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward.
• Early Education: St Albans School (Hertfordshire)
• Undergraduate Education: University College, Oxford (B.A. in Natural Science, specializing in Physics, 1962)
• Postgraduate Education: Trinity Hall, Cambridge (Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, 1966)
• Key Early Diagnosis: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), diagnosed in 1963 at age 21.
• First Wife: Jane Wilde (Married 1965, divorced 1995)

The Unconventional Student: Oxford and the Hour-a-Day Rule

The young Stephen Hawking’s academic journey began with a curious paradox: he was clearly brilliant, yet he was notoriously unmotivated. He received a scholarship to University College, Oxford, in 1959 at the age of 17, but only after being ill and missing a critical entrance exam at age 13. He chose to study Natural Science, specializing in Physics, primarily because his father, Frank Hawking, a research biologist, wanted him to attend Oxford, and the university did not offer a degree in Mathematics, his preferred subject. During his three years at Oxford, Hawking was a late bloomer in terms of study habits. He later confessed that he found the undergraduate work "ridiculously easy" and was bored by the lack of intellectual challenge. This led to a self-imposed "hour-a-day rule," where he claimed to only dedicate about 60 minutes a day to his studies during his first two years. His classmates and tutors noted his reserved nature, describing him as initially keeping to himself and not being particularly fond of social interaction. However, this reserved demeanor began to change. In a surprising twist for the future icon of theoretical physics, the young Hawking was reportedly a member of the rowing team, serving as a coxswain. This role, which requires sharp timing, quick judgment, and an authoritative voice, provided him with a crucial social outlet and helped him overcome his initial shyness, transforming him into a more sociable and popular figure on campus. Despite his minimal study efforts, his innate genius shone through in his final exams. When faced with a borderline First-Class Honours degree, he famously told his examiners, "If you give me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If you give me a Second, I shall stay in Oxford." He was awarded the First, setting the stage for his move to Cambridge University for his postgraduate work.

The Life-Altering Diagnosis: ALS and the Birth of a Cosmologist

The pivotal moment in the young Stephen Hawking's life occurred shortly after he began his graduate studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in October 1962. He was 21 years old when he started experiencing the first subtle, yet alarming, symptoms of what would become a life-defining illness. He began to notice increasing clumsiness, including difficulty tying his shoelaces and a tendency to fall for no apparent reason. The initial manifestations rapidly progressed, leading to a devastating diagnosis in 1963: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a form of Motor Neurone Disease. The prognosis was grim. Doctors predicted he had only two years to live. For a brilliant young man just starting his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, the news was a profound shock that initially plunged him into a deep depression. He felt that his life and his intellectual ambitions were over. This period of despair, however, was short-lived, largely due to two critical factors: the sudden realization of his mortality and his meeting with Jane Wilde. Meeting Jane Wilde, a language student, at a New Year’s party in 1963, provided the young Hawking with a renewed sense of purpose. Their relationship blossomed into romance and a subsequent engagement, which gave him a powerful reason to live and to complete his doctoral research. The urgency of his limited time fueled a new, intense focus on his studies. He shifted from being the unmotivated Oxford undergraduate to a driven cosmologist racing against his own body.

Properties of Expanding Universes: The Defining Early Work

Hawking's Ph.D. work under the supervision of Dennis Sciama at Cambridge was the crucible where his genius was forged. His doctoral thesis, completed and submitted in March 1966, was titled "Properties of Expanding Universes". This work explored the implications of the universe expanding, a topic that would lay the foundation for his later, more famous work on black holes and singularities. The thesis was a landmark achievement, combining advanced mathematics with the nascent field of cosmology. It was in this early work that Hawking first demonstrated his unique ability to apply complex topological and geometric concepts to the universe's structure. The thesis argued that if the universe is expanding, it must have had a beginning—a singularity—a concept that directly challenged the prevailing Steady State theory of the universe. In a testament to the enduring curiosity surrounding the young Hawking’s mind, the University of Cambridge made his 1966 doctoral thesis publicly available online in October 2017. The response was immediate and overwhelming: it became the most requested item in the university's open access repository, Apollo, attracting hundreds of thousands of downloads and crashing the server. Hawking expressed his hope that by making his early work freely accessible, he would inspire others "not just to think and learn but to share research". This early work, driven by the ticking clock of his ALS diagnosis and the support of his first wife, Jane, transformed the young Stephen Hawking from a promising but unfocused student into a relentless theoretical physicist. His defiance of the two-year prognosis, living for 55 more years and revolutionizing physics, is a powerful testament to the human spirit and the transformative power of a sudden, urgent purpose. The story of the unmotivated student who found his focus in the face of death remains one of the most compelling narratives in the history of science.