"It was very interesting, although I certainly didn't understand most of what he said," Dan Krockmalnic '02 said.

Still, Hawking's wit and delivery elicited laughter and applause from the audience.

Hawking showed flashes of biting British humor throughout the speech, frequently breaking out into a wide grin after telling jokes.

When Hawking mentioned a theory predicting an infinite number of universes with an infinite number of outcomes, he quipped that "theoretically, there exists an alternate universe where the Redskins won the Super Bowl, although its probability is very low."

Hawking's 1969 paper proving that time had a beginning won second prize in the Gravitational Research Foundation's annual competition, "winning me the princely sum of $300," said Hawking, as a cartoon depicting a number '2' trophy appeared on the screen behind him.

"I don't know who won first prize, but I hope his paper turned out to be wrong," Hawking quipped.

Hawking communicates with the aid of a computer and speech synthesizer attached to his wheelchair, which requires that he select words one by one from a list on the computer. According to Hawking, this allows him to speak as fast as fifteen words a minute.

Hawking was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative motor neuron disease, at the age of 21 and has spent the last 14 years confined to a wheelchair. He currently has motion only in two fingers of his left hand.