"He's a true hero": Local scholar remembers Stephen Hawking

The scientific community is remembering one of the greatest minds of our generation; Dr. Stephen Hawking. The famed theoretical physicist died at the age of 76.

Hawking, known for his wheelchair and electronic voice, overcame a debilitating disease to push the boundaries of science and revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

By any measure, Hawking's life was incredible. Even more so because in the 1960s, he was given just a few years to live when he was diagnosed with ALS.

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Hawking was left virtually paralyzed, unable to express his profound vision of humanity and science without a voice synthesizer.

That voice was developed right here in Massachusetts. An engineer at MIT created the computerized program that allowed Hawking to select words and commands that could be spoke out loud.

"At one point, I thought I would see the end of physics as we know it. But now I think the wonder of discovery will continue long after I am gone," said Hawking.

But he refused to be bound by his own physical limitations. He reveled in a zero-gravity flight, freeing him, he said, from the confines of his wheelchair.

For more than three decades, he was a professor at Cambridge University's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, specializing in the student of black holes and revered as a member of the academic elite.

But Professor Hawking also did much to popularize science, playing himself in Star Trek and the Simpsons.

In 2014, his life and romance with wife Jane Wilde was depicted on the big screen in the acclaimed film The Theory of Everything.

Hawking consulted on the bio-drama, which earned five Academy Award nominations, and a Best Actor win for Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of the physicist.

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Hawking also wrote a series of children's books about space with his daughter Lucy.

His most famous work, A Brief History of Time, remains one of the best-selling science books every written.

Above all, Hawking was deeply concerned with humanity's survival.

"I see great dangers for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been touch and go. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future. We shall need great care and management to negotiate them all successfully. But I am an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe as we spread into space," said Hawking.

Donner Professor of Science at Harvard University Dr. Cumrun Vafa hosted Hawking twice in the 1990s - as well as just two years ago.

"He had discovered that despite what most physicists thought at that time - that black holes are not quite black, in fact, they radiate," said Vafa.

Vafa and his research partners work in string theory builds on Hawking's work, but it was Hawking's retelling of a trip to Vafa's native Iran that stays with him today.

"He was recounting with amazing precision and detail spelling the name of the cities one by one and to do that he had to use a clicker and pull down the letters of each of the city names to put them together to form the names. Ten of them. From his memory 37 years before then," said Vafa.

Vafa says it was Hawking's spirit that allowed him to reach far beyond the academic circles like the one's at Harvard.

"He was very human. He had a very strong spirit and he was kind of sharing it in a way that he wasn't shy about. We lack such heroes and he's a true hero," said Vafa.

Cox Media Group