The University of Central Florida today is one step closer to becoming the first American university to name a research center after the late, world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

The UCF’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved on Thursday that UCF’s Center for Microgravity Research, would now be known as the Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education. The last step will be approval by the Space Florida Board of Directors.

Lucy Hawking, his daughter, said: “We are grateful to the University of Central Florida for honoring my father’s legacy in this way. My father dedicated his life to advancing our understanding of the universe and encouraging generations of future scientists to build on his own work and that of his colleagues. He would have been proud of this collaboration with the US physicists of tomorrow.”