2018 -- S 2742

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LC005271

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2018

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

EXPRESSING CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF STEPHEN WILLIAM HAWKING

AND HONORING HIS LEGACY OF SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT AND EXCELLENCE

     Introduced By: Senators Calkin, DiPalma, Ruggerio, Goodwin, and McCaffrey

     Date Introduced: March 22, 2018

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

     WHEREAS, Stephen William Hawking, a world renowned physicist long admired for his

brilliance, passed away on March 14, 2018; and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, United Kingdom, to

Frank and Isobel Hawking, University College, Oxford, graduates and medical research

professionals. Stephen Hawking exhibited early brilliance in mathematics, earning the nickname

"Einstein," and was awarded a scholarship to Oxford at the age of 17, where he studied physics

and chemistry and attained a first-class Honours degree in science; and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Hawking later attended Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, where

he obtained a PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specializing in general

relativity and cosmology. He wrote ground-breaking essays on the Big Bang theory and his essay

"Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time" shared top honors to win that year's prestigious

Adams Prize. In 1970, with colleague Roger Penrose, Mr. Hawking was able to show that

Einstein’s general theory of relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big

Bang and end in black holes; and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Hawking's post-graduate work continued to be widely admired and

praised by his peers as he won numerous awards for his work including the Eddington Medal, the

Pius XI Medal, the 1976 Dannie Heineman Prize, the Maxwell Prize and the Hughes Medal. In

1977, he was appointed a professor in gravitational physics and the following year, he received

the Albert Einstein Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. In 1979, he

was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge; and

     WHEREAS, Over the past thirty years, Stephen Hawking has become one of the most

famous, admired and respected persons in the world. He has earned worldwide acclaim for

discovering the four laws of black hole mechanics, for his theory that black holes emit Hawking

radiation, and for his numerous contributions to the theory of cosmic inflation. His book, A Brief

History of Time, written in 1988 for non-scientists, became a worldwide sensation, spent more

than five years on the London Sunday Times bestseller list, was translated into 35 languages, and

sold more than ten million copies. Mr. Hawking's views on issues related to science, philosophy,

politics and religion were reported on across the globe, and the grace with which he fought ALS

was admired universally; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

hereby expresses its condolences on the passing of Stephen William Hawking and expresses its

admiration for his ground-breaking work in the fields of physics and cosmology; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to Robert Hawking, Lucy Hawking, Timothy

Hawking, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge.

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