He has 12 honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982 and since 1979 has been at Cambridge University's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where he is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics -- a post once held by Isaac Newton.

CNN: Hawking: If we survive the next 200 years, we should be OK

"We've opened a whole new class of laser materials, " says Robert Byer, a professor in the applied physics department at Stanford.

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