Hawking was a mathematical physicist. His job was exploring the general relativity and quantum field theory, models which we already know describe our world wi

Hawking was a mathematical physicist. His job was exploring the general relativity and quantum field theory, models which we already know describe our world with remarkable accuracy, trying to understand what they allow and don't allow. He was remarkably successful at this. The Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems made us realize that black holes are ubiquitous in general relativity. It played a big role in the community's acceptance of their reality. He discovered that quantum field theories on curved spacetime generically predict that different observers will see different matter and radiation in the same region of spacetime, depending upon their state of motion. This includes Hawking radiation from black holes. His work with Hartle on cosmology helped open our eyes to what a wild variety of phenomena are possible in the early universe. If you don't know Hawking's work, then you don't have an opinion about it. Not rating it highly isn't an option.