Lucy Hawking

About Lucy Hawking

Lucy Hawking is a children’s author who makes science accessible and entertaining to young readers through her ‘George’ book series of fantasy adventure novels based on real science. Written in collaboration with world-leading scientists including her father, the late Professor Stephen Hawking, the George series is published in over 40 languages, including Zulu and Xhosa. The final seventh book of the series, ‘Unlocking the Universe’ a compilation of the science content from the whole series with some outstanding new essays, was a number 1 bestseller, published by Penguin Random House Children’s Book in January 2022.

In April 2022, Lucy published the first in a series of new climate science adventure novels for young readers. Princess Olivia Investigates the Wrong Weather has been critically acclaimed and received enthusiastic feedback from young readers. The next book in the series, Princess Olivia Investigates the Sea of Plastic will be published in July 2023.

In 2015, Lucy created the Principia Space Diary with Curved House Kids for the UK Space Agency. Principia Space Diary is an innovative educational concept for primary students which allowed them to write their own book about astronaut Tim Peake’s mission to the ISS. Principia Space Diary was shortlisted in 2017 for the Arthur C. Clarke award for education and outreach. With the same team, Lucy created the Mars Diary for primary age school children, published in 2018, also shortlisted for an Arthur C. Clarke award. On July 20th, 2019, as part of the musical and theatrical troupe, The Lunatic Fringe, Lucy co-wrote and co-performed a critically acclaimed tribute to the Apollo Moon Landings at the Petworth Festival called ‘Fly Me to the Moon.’

As well as editing the text for her father’s final publication, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Lucy wrote the Afterword for his posthumous book and recorded the audio version for Audible and Radio 4. Lucy has also made documentaries for BBC Radio 4 about the impact of technology on different aspects of human life. Recently, Audible Originals released the highly rated ‘Lucy in the Sky’, a series of eight podcasts by Lucy about the future of the human race in space.

In 2008, Lucy won the Sappio Prize for Popularizing Science and in 2015, the UNSW medal for Outstanding Science Communication. In July 2015, Lucy was awarded an honorary doctorate in science by Queen Mary University London for her work in STEM education. In 2017, Lucy was a judge on the Royal Society’s Young Science Book of the year as well as on the BAFTA judging panel for their Children’s Awards. That year, Lucy was also honoured by the New Amsterdam News Educational Foundation in New York for her contribution to education in science and technology. Lucy has been a regular judge for the Breakthrough Junior Challenge in Palo Alto, USA.

Based on her research into challenges facing women and girls with autism, Lucy made a virtual reality film, The Party, about the social challenges faced by a teenager with autism. The Party, made in collaboration with the Guardian Media Group, was nominated for an award in the ‘social impact’ category at the annual VR Awards 2018 and received huge critical acclaim for its realistic and authentic depiction of the experiences of a teenage girl with autism. Lucy is currently working with Atlantic Productions on a virtual reality experience based on black hole theory.

Lucy is an Ambassador for the Autism Centre of Excellence at Cambridge University and a friend of the Motor Neurone Disease Association. In her time as chair person of the Stephen Hawking Foundation, Lucy pioneered many impactful projects such as space camps and importantly, a free to access presentation for use in secondary schools during the pandemic to allow students and teachers to explore vaccination through critical thinking and informed scientific debate. The Vaccine Initiative was created in collaboration with the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Queen Mary University London. Endorsed by the National Education Union in the UK, the Vaccine Initiative was downloaded over 100,000 times by schools worldwide.

Lucy is an experienced and popular public speaker who has given engaging and informative talks worldwide in differing venues to audiences ranging from school children in Bangladesh to Silicon valley executives in Palo Alto. She also hosted two sell out shows at Sydney Opera House where she appeared as the live presenter while her father Stephen beamed in as a hologram from Cambridge UK.