The Incredibly Complex Life Of Stephen Hawking

The Return To Cambridge

Photo Credits: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize Foundation

Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 with a better reputation and more respect. He was named the “reader” in gravitational physics. While holding his position at Cambridge, there was a growing public interest in black holes during the mid-1970s. Because of his work, Hawking began to become regularly interviewed for both print and television, and started to be regarded as a celebrity in the academic community for his discoveries and research.

In 1975 he was awarded both the Eddington Medal and the Pius XI Gold Medal and in 1976 the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Maxwell Prize, and the Hughes Medal. He was then appointed a professor with a chair in gravitational physics in 1977 and in 1978 received the Albert Einstein Medal and an honorary doctorate from Oxford.