Physicist Stephen Hawking being treated at Rome hospital

Hawking had travelled to Rome for a meeting at the Vatican of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences from November 25-29, where he met Pope Francis.

Acclaimed British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has been undergoing tests at Rome’s Policlinico Gemelli hospital, where he is receiving treatment for respiratory problems, Italian news agency Adnkronos reports.

Pope Francis greets physicist Stephen Hawking during an audience with participants at a plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, at the Vatican on November 28. Hawking was in the Italian capital to attend this event, after which he was admitted. (AP)

The 74-year-old scientist was admitted to the Policlinico Gemelli’s Nemo Centre for neuromuscular diseases. He suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a severe form of degenerative motor neuron disease and is unable to move or speak.

Hawking had travelled to Rome for a meeting at the Vatican of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences from November 25-29, where he met Pope Francis.

The 2014 Oscar-winning film “The Theory of Everything” portrays the remarkable life of Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease when he was a 21-year-old student at Cambridge University.

Hawking is not the first internationally renowned intellect to seek treatment at the Policlinico Gemelli. In August, the Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen’s wife was admitted to the hospital for an urgent operation.