Who is Sir Roger Penrose?

Sir Roger Penrose is a famous mathematician and cosmologist who is probably best known for his discoveries with Stephen Hawking about black holes.

Among his many very interesting creations are non-periodic tilings of the plane. Along with his father, Lionel Penrose, he also invented the Penrose triangle, and the Penrose stairs. These were later used by M. C. Escher in some of his art.

He is also the author of several popular books on mathematics and science, one of which is The Emperor's New Mind (Oxford University Press, 1989). It is this book that has the detailed description that was used in constructing the Excel-based Turing Machine that you can download from the Home page of this website.

In recognition of his many significant contributions to science and mathematics, Sir Roger Penrose was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

He was awarded half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery that black holes are predicted by the general theory of relativity.

Among Sir Roger Penrose's recent accomplishments is the development, with Dr. Stuart Hameroff, of the Orch OR theory. This is a theory that attempts to explain how Quantum Mechanics may effect consciousness and emotions in the human brain—things that a Turing Machine could not possibly possess.