The news has been confirmed by his family members, that include his children Lucy, Robert and Tim.
"We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today," the children of the British physicist Stephen Hawking said in a statement announcing his death. "He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years, "AFP reported.
He was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.
Hawking, who is hailed as the most brilliant theoretical physicist after Albert Eisntein, suffered from motor neurone disease since 1963.
The doctors had told him that he would not live for more than two years, but he went on to study at Cambridge , became the top scientist of the world and died at his age of 76.