Why is Stephen Hawking introduced as “Professor” rather than as “Doctor”?
He is a doctor as well as a professor. A doctor is a person who has earned a doctoral degree such as a PhD or DBA, and a professor is someone who teaches at the university level. You can be a doctor and not teach, and you can teach without being a doctor, but as it so happens a doctoral degree is preferred for a teaching position because universities are required to have a certain percentage of academically qualified professors in order to be accredited. Naturally there is a significant intersection of people who are doctors as well as professors. Stephen Hawking is one of them. EDIT: I don’t really know why he doesn’t go by “Doctor Stephen Hawking,” but I imagine it’s because he thinks it’s superfluous.
