STEPHEN HAWKING was a brilliant theoretical physicist, generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers. He was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and is the author of A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. His other books for the general reader include A Briefer History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universe, The Universe in a Nutshell, and Brief Answers to the Big Questions. He died on 14 March, 2018.