Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking, who occupies the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University once occupied by Isaac Newton himself, has attained an almost Einstein-like recognizability in modern culture. He has appeared as himself in episodes of Star Trek and The Simpsons, and his popular-level 1988 book A Brief History of Time remained on the Sunday Times best-seller list for longer than any other book in history (237 weeks).

This fame is because of brilliant scientific feats, and because he has achieved these while being almost completely paralyzed over a period of more than 30 years by the progressive (and usually quickly fatal) neuromuscular affliction known as Lou Gehrig disease. Hawking, with one of the most brilliant minds in modern science, is able to communicate only at a rate of a few words per minute using eye blinks and a computer voice synthesizer controlled by small remaining motion in a finger.