In which city did Stephen Hawking live for most of his adult life?

Stephen Hawking lived in Cambridge for most of his adult life.

He moved to Cambridge in 1962 to begin postgraduate study at Trinity Hall after earning his undergraduate degree at Oxford. Cambridge became the centre of his scientific career and personal life. He remained closely associated with the university for decades, eventually serving as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1979 to 2009.

Hawking and his first wife, Jane Wilde, lived in Cambridge after marrying in 1965, and their three children were born during this period. He worked at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and later directed research at its Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.

Cambridge did not mean Hawking never lived or worked elsewhere. He travelled extensively for conferences and visiting appointments, including time in the United States, and became a research chair at Canada’s Perimeter Institute after 2009. However, those periods did not replace Cambridge as his main lifelong academic and residential base. Oxford was his undergraduate university, which is why it is sometimes mistaken for the answer.