I have always had mixed feelings about Steven Hawking as a physicist.

He suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from a young age but his rare disorder never stopped him from earning a brilliant professional career. That alone is inspiring for me and deserves respect.

But what gives me the mixed feelings about him is how the media has turned him into a science hero and he never bothered to correct this fake public image. He was never a top physicist or a genius of any sort. He was indeed a public figure who popularized theoretical physics and cosmology. But his legacy has become highly overrated by the media. As a contemporary science public figure, he tried to explain the topics of physics which appear interesting to the general public but he was never a good promoter of actual physics like Richard Feynman and Leonhard Susskind in my opinion. As a scientist, he has done nothing significant that can be compared to today's giants of physics like Edward Witten, for instance. He also misused physics as a tool to discuss and to prove or disprove public beliefs based on his own ideas which is not the principal goal or concern of scientists when they do science.

Anyway, I read about his departure and it kind of made me sad. May he rest in peace.

@ThierryAms: I am criticizing the image of a public figure given to him by the media. I am not criticizing him personally. And I do not think criticism has anything to do with time. It was brought up now, so I shared my opinion.

Edit: On a second thought, I think I am also criticizing him for encouraging, or at least not stopping, this fake image. I stand by my opinion. He is a public figure. Public figures are seen as inspirations or role models by the public. Therefore, they can be judged or criticized by the public too.

He has been a source of inspiration for me. May his soul R.I.P.

I will always love you STEPHEN HAWKING.