Stephen Hawking, whose work advanced the state of physics as much as the popular understanding of it, has died at the age of 76, his family has said. Hawking’s brilliant intellect and unflinching personality famously contrasted with the wasting disease from which he suffered for most of his life, limiting his movements and speech. Undaunted by the diagnosis when he was 21 and prognosis of death before 30, Hawking defied every expectation and lived an extraordinary and productive life.

Stephen Hawking, whose work advanced the state of physics as much as the popular understanding of it, has died at the age of 76, his family has said. Hawking’s brilliant intellect and unflinching personality famously contrasted with the wasting disease from which he suffered for most of his life, limiting his movements and speech. Undaunted by the diagnosis when he was 21 and prognosis of death before 30, Hawking defied every expectation and lived an extraordinary and productive life.