Skip to main content

Proud to be part of LJMU,
in partnership with the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust

 

Stephen Hawking

Early Life

Stephen was born in 1942 in Oxford, UK during World War II. He decided that he wanted to study mathematics at university, but his father wanted him to choose medicine instead. He was accepted into University College Oxford but because they did not offer a degree in mathematics, Stephen chose to study physics. After three years (and, in his words, "not very much work"), he graduated with a first-class honours degree in natural sciences. From there, he went on to study cosmology at Cambridge University.

Year born: 1942

Research Areas: Cosmology, Theoretical Physics

 

"All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them."

Katherine Johnson

Early Life

Katherine Johnson grew up in West Virginia, USA. Her mother was a teacher and her father a farmer and handyman. Katherine was curious about numbers from an early age and took every course in maths she could at West Virginia State College. She graduated with the highest honours in 1937 and took a job teaching at a Black public school in Virginia. In 1939, Katherine became the first Black woman to study for a postgraduate qualification at West Virginia University. She then took a break from studying and teaching to have children.

Year born: 1918

Research Areas: Rocket Flightpaths, Trajectories, Orbital Mechanics

 

"I loved going to work every single day"

Computers

Interferometers use a network of antennas, over a wide area, to create a virtual much larger single telescope. It would be impossible to build such instruments without powerful computers. Signals from different antennas must be added together with atomic-clock precision. Software must separate real signals from background noise and then produce a result that is useful for astronomers.