Hawking to leave Cambridge post

One of the world’s most famous scientists will shed one of the world’s most famous academic titles tomorrow, university officials said.

Disabled physicist Stephen Hawking was completing his last day as Cambridge University’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics today, they added.

The 67-year-old will continue to work at the university but a new Lucasian Professor would be appointed in the near future, said a spokeswoman.

The spokeswoman said it was policy for holders of the title to retire at 67 - the university announced last year that Prof Hawking would step down.

Prof Hawking, a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, began work in Cambridge in 1962 and has held the Lucasian Professorship since 1979.

Previous holders of the title, founded by MP Henry Lucas in 1663, include Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, Sir Joseph Larmor and Sir James Lighthill.

Prof Hawking, who suffers from motor neurone disease, is one of the world’s leading cosmologists and gained fame following the publication of his book A Brief History Of Time in 1988.