You can be famous even when no one has any idea what your talking about. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has become a pop culture icon to geeks and laymen around the world for his, uh, research in, uh theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. Yeah, the easy stuff, I know. Hawking became a cultural icon with the combination of his best selling book, A Brief History of Time, and his success in the face of severe disabilities. Hawking is confined to a wheelchair due to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He has won more than a dozen major awards and honorary degrees for his research.

He has equipped his wheelchair with an advanced computer system allowing him to communicate verbally, surf the web, receive phone calls, and control doors in his house. Hawking’s image has itself become iconic, immortalized on shows like the Simpons, Star Trek, and Futurama.