Stephen Hawking's father was a medical researcher specializing in what?

Stephen Hawking’s father, Frank Hawking, was a medical researcher specialising in tropical diseases.

Frank studied medicine at the University of Oxford and later worked as a researcher in tropical medicine. His career involved extended periods of work in Africa, and in 1950 he became head of the parasitology division at the National Institute for Medical Research.

That appointment prompted the Hawking family to move from Oxford to St Albans in Hertfordshire. Stephen grew up in an intellectually serious household: both of his parents had attended Oxford, and reading and discussion were central parts of family life.

Stephen admired his father’s scientific career but chose a different field. He regarded medicine and biology as too descriptive for his interests and pursued physics instead, eventually becoming a leading theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Tropical diseases therefore describes Frank’s speciality, not Stephen’s own research area.