{"id":124433,"date":"2021-11-18T11:01:36","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T16:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433//?p=124433"},"modified":"2022-01-05T14:05:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T19:05:32","slug":"ucf-names-its-microgravity-research-center-in-honor-of-stephen-w-hawking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433//ucf-names-its-microgravity-research-center-in-honor-of-stephen-w-hawking/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433//","title":{"rendered":"Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Names Its Microgravity Research Center in Honor of Stephen W. Hawking"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ today is one step closer to becoming the first American university to name a research center after the late, world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen W. Hawking./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/n

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2019s Board of Trustees unanimously approved on Thursday that Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2019s Center for Microgravity Research, would now be known as the Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education. The last step will be approval by the Space Florida Board of Directors./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/n

“I want to personally thank Professor Hawking/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2019s family, especially Robert Hawking who visited with us right before the pandemic and Lucy Hawking who shares our passion for science and educating the next generation of students. We are honored to be entrusted with Professor Hawking/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2019s name and will continue to conduct world class space research, something that is part of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2019s DNA.” /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2014 Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ President Alexander N. Cartwright/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/n

The establishment of this center brings to fulfillment Professor Hawking/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2019s personal aspiration to support microgravity space research in the United States. That enthusiasm was generated years ago after a zero-gravity flight at the Cape sponsored by Space Florida, which then connected him with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/n

In the ensuing years, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ continued to build its reputation as a space research institution and a team of specialists formed the Center for Microgravity Research. Physics Professor Joshua Colwell, who has worked on multiple NASA missions, began collaborating with a team of colleagues and students to build expertise in microgravity research /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2013 a key area of interest for Hawking./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/n

Lucy Hawking, his daughter, says: /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u201cWe are grateful to the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ for honoring my father/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u2019s legacy in this way. My father dedicated his life to advancing our understanding of the universe and encouraging generations of future scientists to build on his own work and that of his colleagues. He would have been proud of this collaboration with the US physicists of tomorrow./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/n

The only other university to have a research center named after Hawking is the University of Cambridge in the UK. As a Ph.D. student, Hawking studied applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specializing in general relativity and cosmology. He eventually became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the university, a position once held by Isaac Newton./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/124433/n