New Delhi, May 5 -- Stephen Hawking was an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist whose life combined severe physical limitations with an extraordinary intellectual reach. Born in Oxford in 1942, he studied at Oxford and Cambridge, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease shortly after turning 21, and was at one point given only a short time to live. Instead, he went on to become one of the world's best-known scientists through his work on black holes, singularities and cosmology, while also becoming a global public voice for curiosity, resilience, and human potential.

"Never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it." - Stephen Hawking

ABC News preserved this quote from a 2010 interview with D...