I have a list of 5 people that are still alive that I would love to meet and this man is one of them. Aside from being a bona fide genius and revolutionizing science and how we think about space, he's baffled doctors by grossly outliving his condition.
He's been poked fun at on South Park and Family Guy and a million other shows because of how he talks through his machine, but from things I've read he takes it in stride (no pun intended...sorta).
Happy Birthday Mr. Hawking.