British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking died Wednesday at the age of 76, his children said in a statement.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of our beloved father today,” said her children Lucy, Robert and Tim in this text published by the British Press Association.

“He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will still live for many years,” they wrote.

Stephen Hawking had challenged the predictions that he had only a few years to live after developing in 1964 a neurodegenerative disease, Charcot’s Disease, which had nailed him in a wheelchair.

“His courage and tenacity, his genius and his humor, have inspired people around the world,” said his children.