Professor Stephen Hawking has been named as one of the first recipients of the most lucrative science prize in history.

The £1.8 million Special Fundamental Physics Prize was established earlier this year by a Russian billionaire.

Britain's most famous theoretical physicist says he plans to spend his windfall on his daughter's autistic son and "maybe" buying a holiday home.

Hawking and a team of scientists who led the hunt for the Higgs boson mass particle received separate prizes worth £1.8m each.

The former Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, who is severely disabled with motor neurone disease, earned his prize for a lifetime of achievement un-ravelling the mysteries of quantum gravity and the early universe.

In particular, the award recognised his discovery of Hawking radiation, a quantum effect that allows black holes to "evaporate" by emitting particles.

The Special Fundamental Physics Prize was set up by Yuri Milner, a Russian internet mogul who abandoned his PhD in physics to make a fortune from the web.

Hawkings said: "No-one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no-one knew before.Nevertheless, prizes like these play an important role in giving public recognition for achievement in physics."