Roger Penrose

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Professor Sir Roger Penrose in 2012

Sir Roger Penrose Kt OM FRS (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematical physicist. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and emeritus fellow of Wadham College.

Penrose won the Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly, in 2020.[1] Previously he had won the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems.[2]

Works[change | change source]

He is renowned for his work in astrophysics with Stephen Hawking, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He is also a recreational mathematician and philosopher.

Roger Penrose is the brother of mathematician Oliver Penrose and chess grandmaster Jonathan Penrose. His sister, now Shirley Hodgson, is a notable geneticist. He was born in Colchester, Essex, England. He was awarded the Copley Medal in 2008.

In 2020, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Reinhard Genzel and Andrea M. Ghez.[3]

Works[change | change source]

  • Techniques of Differential Topology in Relativity. 1972, ISBN 0-89871-005-7
  • Spinors and Space-Time, volume 1: Two-spinor calculus and relativistic fields. (with Wolfgang Rindler) 1987. ISBN 0-521-33707-0
  • Spinors and Space-Time, volume 2: Spinor and twistor methods in space-time geometry. (with Wolfgang Rindler) 1988. ISBN 0-521-34786-6
  • The Emperor's New Mind: concerning computers, minds, and the laws of physics. 1989. ISBN 0-14-014534-6; it received the Rhone-Poulenc science book prize in 1990.
  • Shadows of the Mind: a search for the missing science of consciousness. 1994. ISBN 0-19-853978-9
  • The nature of space and time (with Stephen Hawking, 1996, ISBN 0-691-03791-4 hardback ISBN 0-691-05084-8 (paperback)
  • The large, the small, and the human mind (with Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, and Stephen Hawking) 1997. ISBN 0-521-56330-5 (hardback), ISBN 0-521-65538-2 (paperback), Canto edition: ISBN 0-521-78572-3)
  • White Mars or, the mind set free with Brian W. Aldiss. 1999. ISBN 978-0-316-85243-2 (hardback)
  • The Road to Reality: a complete guide to the laws of the Universe. 2004. ISBN 0-224-04447-8 (hardcover), ISBN 0-09-944068-7 (paperback)
  • Cycles of Time: an extraordinary new view of the Universe. 2010. Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0-224-08036-1

References[change | change source]

  1. "Roger Penrose | Biography, Books, Awards, & Facts". Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  2. Siegel, Matthew (8 January 2008). "Wolf Foundation Honors Hawking and Penrose for Work in Relativity". Physics Today. 42 (1): 97–98. doi:10.1063/1.2810893. ISSN 0031-9228. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  3. "Alert: Nobel Prize for physics awarded to Roger Penrose for black hole discovery; and to Reinhard Genzel, Andrea Ghez". The San Francisco Chronicle. 6 October 2020. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.