When Hawking was a teenager, he and several of his friends created a computer using recycled parts. The computer could solve basic math equations. Hawking went to University College at Oxford University when he was 17. Hawking wanted to study mathematics, but it was not offered. Hawking graduated with honors in natural science in 1962. Hawking went to Trinity Hall at Cambridge University to get a PhD in cosmology.
    While Hawking was at Oxford, he noticed problems in his health such as tripping and falling or slurring his speech. Hawking kept his symptoms private, but in 1963 Hawking’s father took him to see a doctor. Stephen Hawking was in the early stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). This meant that the nerves that controlled his muscles were shutting down. Not too long before Hawking was diagnosed with ALS he met a language undergraduate named Jane Wilde. Hawking married her in 1965. Hawking said that before his condition was diagnosed he, “had been very bored with life.” Hawking realized he might not live long enough to earn his PhD, so Hawking “poured himself into his work and research.”
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