London - British theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking will retire from teaching next year, the University of Cambridge has announced.

Hawking, who suffers from a motor neurone disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that has left him almost paralysed and only able to communicate through a computer, will hand over the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics to a successor in the new academic year, a statement said early Friday.

Hawking, who reaches the Lucasian chair's retirement age of 67 in January, will continue his research at the university.

The Lucasian Chair of Mathematics is renowned and was occupied by Isaac Newton in the 17th century.

Hawking has held the chair for almost 30 years.

He is one of the most famous cosmologists in the world, and author of the popular science book A Brief History of Time, which has sold 9 million copies, according to publishers Bantam Dell.