UTSA President's Lecture Dec. 5 features noted physicist Sir Roger Penrose

Sir Roger Penrose

By Kris Rodriguez
Public Affairs Specialist

(Nov. 21, 2013) -- The UTSA President's Distinguished Visiting Lecture Series will feature internationally recognized mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose at 6 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 5 in the Main Building Auditorium (0.104) on the UTSA Main Campus. Penrose's presentation, "Seeing Signals from Before the Big Bang," is free and open to the public.

Internationally acclaimed for his scientific work in mathematical physics, Penrose has received recognition for his contributions to general relativity and cosmology.

A native of Essex, United Kingdom, Penrose attended University College London where he received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics degree. He went on to conduct research in pure mathematics and earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

At Cambridge, Penrose continued conducting pure mathematical research and began publishing articles on general relativity. He demonstrated that singularities, such as black holes, could be formed from the gravitational collapse of massive dying stars. His foundation was extended by renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Their collaboration led to the creation of the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems.

Penrose's list of noted publications include "The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe" and "Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe" (2012), "The Nature of Space and Time" (with Stephen Hawking) (1996), "Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness" (1994) and "Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers Minds and the Laws of Physics" (1989).

His list of awards and honors includes the Wolf Foundation Prize for Physics and Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, both with Stephen Hawking, Fellow of the Royal Society, Science Book Prize, Albert Einstein Medal, Naylor Prize of the London Mathematical Society, knighted for Service to Science, the Order of Merit from the U.S. Academy of Sciences, the Fonseca Prize by the University of Santiago Compostela, Chile, and the Richard R. Ernst Medal by ETH Zurich for his contributions to science and strengthening the connection between science and society.

Additionally, Penrose has held teaching roles at Princeton University, Syracuse University, University of Texas at Austin, King's College of London and Birkbeck College of London.

Currently, he serves as the Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford and as an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College.

For more information about the Dec. 5 lecture, contact James Powell at 210-458-5749.