27. Stephen Hawking

Professor Stephen William Hawking, D.Phil., CH, CBE, FRS, (born January 8, 1942) is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton), and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Despite being severly handicapped by motor neurone disease, he has had a hugely successful career and has achieved status as a worldwide celebrity