'The State of the Universe' scientific conference and the public symposium were held in Cambridge UK, to celebrate the 70th birthday of Professor Stephen Hawking. The conference was hosted by the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology (DAMTP) at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences in the University of Cambridge. We were very pleased to be able to hold this remarkable event for Professor Hawking, whose courage, insight and vision continues to have such an impact on the way we all understand fundamental physics at the extremes in black holes and the Big Bang. A major goal of the event was to review the current status of the fields of black holes, cosmology and fundamental physics; the 27 invited speakers are all world leaders in these fields.