Why Professor Stephen Hawking never had a knighthood As one of the world’s best-known scientists Professor Stephen Hawking didn’t shy away from the limelight or international acclaim but […]

As one of the world’s best-known scientists Professor Stephen Hawking didn’t shy away from the limelight or international acclaim but there was one honour he did turn down – a knighthood.

It was revealed in 2008, the eminent physicist had been offered a knighthood in the late 1990s almost a decade after he had published the bestseller A Brief History of Time.

However, the Cambridge don had refused the honour on principle reportedly over the UK government’s science funding.

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No to knighthood

Correspondence at the time is said to have revealed he felt the government had mismanaged the funding of UK science.

In particular, he was reported to be critical of the merger of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council and the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils.

As a result, he never became Sir Stephen Hawking.

But he had already been made part of the Order of the Companion of Honour in 1989 for his contribution to science and was granted a CBE in 1982.

In 2009, he was given the highest civilian award in the US – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – by Barack Obama for his scientific work.

And in 2013, he won one of the most lucrative academic awards the Fundamental Physics Prize for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes.