Roger Penrose facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir Roger Penrose
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Penrose in 2011
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| Born | 8 August 1931 Colchester, Essex, England
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| Education | |
| Known for |
List of contributions
Moore–Penrose inverse
Twistor theory Spin network Abstract index notation Black hole bomb Geometry of spacetime Cosmic censorship Illumination problem Weyl curvature hypothesis Penrose inequalities Penrose interpretation of quantum mechanics Diósi–Penrose model Newman–Penrose formalism GHP formalism Penrose diagram Penrose inequality Penrose process Penrose tiling Penrose triangle Penrose stairs Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems Penrose graphical notation Penrose transform Penrose–Terrell effect pp-wave spacetime Schrödinger–Newton equations Orch-OR/Penrose–Lucas argument FELIX experiment Trapped surface Andromeda paradox Conformal cyclic cosmology |
| Spouse(s) |
Joan Isabel Wedge
(m. 1959, divorced)Vanessa Thomas
(m. 1988) |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | Lionel Penrose (father), Roland Penrose (uncle), Jonathan Penrose (brother), Oliver Penrose (brother), Shirley Hodgson (sister), Antony Penrose (cousin) |
| Awards |
List of awards
Adams Prize (1966)
Heineman Prize (1971) Fellow of the Royal Society (1972) Eddington Medal (1975) Royal Medal (1985) Wolf Prize (1988) Dirac Medal (IOP) (1989) Albert Einstein Medal (1990) Naylor Prize and Lectureship (1991) Knight Bachelor (1994) James Scott Prize Lectureship (1997–2000) Karl Schwarzschild Medal (2000) De Morgan Medal (2004) Dalton Medal (2005) Copley Medal (2008) Fonseca Prize (2011) Nobel Prize in Physics (2020) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematical physics, tessellations |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Tensor Methods in Algebraic Geometry (1957) |
| Doctoral advisor | John A. Todd |
| Other academic advisors | W. V. D. Hodge |
| Doctoral students |
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Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is a famous English mathematician and physicist. He also studies the philosophy of science. In 2020, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is a professor at the University of Oxford and a fellow at Wadham College, Oxford. He is also an honorary fellow at St John's College, Cambridge and University College London.
Penrose has made huge contributions to the study of general relativity and the universe. He has won many awards. These include the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking. They won for their work on Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems. He also won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics. This was for showing that black holes are a strong prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Roger Penrose was born in Colchester, England. His father, Lionel Penrose, was a doctor and geneticist. His mother was Margaret Leathes. Roger grew up in a family of talented people. His uncle, Roland Penrose, was an artist. His brother, Jonathan Penrose, was a chess grandmaster.
During World War II, Roger lived in Canada with his family. He later studied at University College School. Then he went to University College London. In 1952, he earned a degree in mathematics.
In 1955, while studying for his PhD, Penrose helped bring back the idea of the Moore–Penrose inverse. This is a special type of mathematical tool. He earned his PhD in 1957 from St John's College, Cambridge. His thesis was about "Tensor Methods in Algebraic Geometry."
Penrose also worked with his father to create the Penrose triangle in the 1950s. He called it "impossibility in its purest form." This impossible shape inspired the artist M. C. Escher. Escher's famous works like Waterfall and Ascending and Descending were inspired by Penrose's ideas.
A writer named Manjit Kumar explained it well:
As a student in 1954, Penrose saw an exhibition of Escher's art. He started trying to draw his own impossible shapes. He created the tribar, which looks like a solid 3D triangle but isn't. With his father, Penrose then designed a staircase that seems to go up and down at the same time. They wrote an article about it and sent it to Escher. This inspired Escher to create his two famous masterpieces.
Discoveries and Career
After his studies, Penrose worked at several universities. These included Bedford College, Princeton, and King's College, London. In 1959, he married Joan Isabel Wedge.
In 1964, Penrose was working at Birkbeck College, London. He changed how scientists study spacetime, which is the fabric of the universe. Before him, scientists could only study simple shapes of spacetime. Penrose found a new way to look at the overall shape and connections of spacetime. This helped scientists understand complex situations, like what happens when a star collapses.
Penrose's work showed that if a star collapses past a certain point, it will form a singularity. This is a point where gravity becomes infinitely strong. This idea also helped explain the Big Bang, the beginning of our universe. He worked on this with Stephen Hawking.
Penrose also proposed the idea of "cosmic censorship" in 1969. This idea suggests that singularities are always hidden inside a black hole by an event horizon. An event horizon is a boundary from which nothing, not even light, can escape. He also described the Penrose process. This is a way to get energy from a black hole.
In 1967, Penrose created twistor theory. This is a mathematical way to describe objects in spacetime.
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Penrose is also famous for his 1974 discovery of Penrose tilings. These are patterns made from two simple shapes that can cover a surface without repeating. They show a special five-fold symmetry. Years later, similar patterns were found in real materials called quasicrystals. He also invented spin networks in 1971. These later became important in a theory called loop quantum gravity. He also helped make Penrose diagrams popular. These are special diagrams that show how light and objects move in spacetime.
From 1983 to 1987, Penrose taught at Rice University. Many students earned their PhDs under his guidance.
In 2004, Penrose wrote a long book called The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe. It explains the laws of physics. In it, he also shared his own theory. This theory tries to connect quantum mechanics (the physics of the very small) with general relativity (the physics of gravity and large objects). He suggests that a quantum state changes when the curve of spacetime reaches a certain level.
Ideas About the Universe
In 2010, Penrose suggested there might be signs of a universe that existed before our own. He found patterns of concentric circles in data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). This data studies the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is leftover radiation from the Big Bang.
He wrote about this in his 2010 book Cycles of Time. In this book, he talks about his idea of conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC). This theory suggests that our universe is just one in a series of universes. He believes that when our universe ends, all matter will eventually fall into black holes. These black holes will then slowly evaporate. At that point, the universe will only contain light particles (photons). Since photons don't experience time or space, an infinitely large universe of photons would be similar to an infinitely small one. This could mean the end of one universe is the beginning of another.
Penrose thinks that the "singularity" at the Big Bang might not be a true singularity. He believes it could be removed with a different mathematical approach. This would mean we don't need to combine general relativity and quantum mechanics to understand the Big Bang.
Ideas About Consciousness
Penrose has also written books about how physics might explain human consciousness. In his book The Emperor's New Mind (1989), he argues that current physics laws cannot fully explain consciousness. He suggests that a new type of physics, involving quantum gravity, might be needed.
Penrose believes that human thought is not just like a computer program. He argues that computers, which follow set rules (algorithms), cannot truly have intelligence like humans. This is because human insight, especially in mathematics, goes beyond simple rules. He bases this on ideas like Gödel's incompleteness theorem. This theorem shows that some true statements cannot be proven within a given system of logic.
Many experts disagree with Penrose's ideas about consciousness. For example, Marvin Minsky, a leader in artificial intelligence, believed that humans are complex machines. He thought our minds could be explained by current physics.
Penrose continued to explain his views in later books, like Shadows of the Mind (1994) and The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (1997). In these books, he worked with anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff. They proposed the Orch-OR (orchestrated objective reduction) theory. This theory suggests that consciousness comes from quantum effects happening in tiny structures called microtubules inside brain cells.
However, many physicists have questioned this theory. They argue that the brain is too warm and complex for these delicate quantum effects to last long enough to create consciousness. Despite the criticism, Hameroff and Penrose continue to explore and update their theory.
Publications
Penrose has written many books for both general readers and scientists.
His popular books include:
- The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and The Laws of Physics (1989)
- Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness (1994)
- The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe (2004)
- Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe (2010)
- Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe (2016)
He also co-authored books, such as:
- The Nature of Space and Time (with Stephen Hawking) (1996)
- The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (with Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, and Stephen Hawking) (1997)
Awards and Honours
Sir Roger Penrose has received many awards for his scientific work.
- In 1971, he won the Heineman Prize.
- He became a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1972.
- In 1975, he and Stephen Hawking won the Eddington Medal.
- He received the Royal Society Royal Medal in 1985.
- In 1988, he shared the Wolf Prize in Physics with Stephen Hawking.
- He won the Dirac Medal (IOP) in 1989.
- In 1990, he received the Albert Einstein Medal.
- He was made a Knight in 1994 for his services to science.
- In 2000, he became a Member of the Order of Merit (OM).
- In 2004, he was awarded the De Morgan Medal. The London Mathematical Society praised his work on black holes, twistor theory, and Penrose tilings.
- In 2008, he received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society.
- In 2020, he was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics. This was for his discovery that black holes are a strong prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Personal Life
Roger Penrose first married Joan Isabel Wedge in 1959. They had three sons. He is now married to Vanessa Thomas. She is a director at Cokethorpe School. They have one son.
Religious Views
In a 2010 interview, Penrose said he is not a believer in established religions. He considers himself an agnostic. He has also said that he believes the universe has a purpose and is not just there by chance.
Penrose supports Humanists UK, an organization that promotes humanism.
See also
In Spanish: Roger Penrose para niños
- List of things named after Roger Penrose
