Carl Sagan. Bill Nye. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Alan Watts. Center for Humans & Nature. Stephen Hawking. Stephen William Hawking CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA ( i/ˈstiːvən ˈhɔːkɪŋ/; born 8 January 1942) is an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.[16][17] His scientific works include a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation.
Hawking was the first to set forth a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.[18][19] Bill Maher. Peter Singer. On two occasions Singer served as chair of the philosophy department at Monash University, where he founded its Centre for Human Bioethics.
In 1996 he stood unsuccessfully as a Greens candidate for the Australian Senate. In 2004 he was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies, and in June 2012 was named a Companion of the Order of Australia for his services to philosophy and bioethics.[2] He serves on the Advisory Board of Incentives for Global Health, the NGO formed to develop the Health Impact Fund proposal. He was voted one of Australia's ten most influential public intellectuals in 2006.[3] Singer currently serves on the advisory board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP). Life and career[edit] Singer's parents were Viennese Jews who emigrated to Australia from Vienna in 1938, after Austria's annexation by Nazi Germany.[4] They settled in Melbourne, where Singer was born.
Richard Dawkins. English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author Richard Dawkins FRS FRSL (born Clinton Richard Dawkins; 26 March 1941)[24] is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author.
He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme.
With his book The Extended Phenotype (1982), he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment. In 2006, he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.