Sir Roger Penrose
in Conversation with Janna Levin

Sir Roger Penrose was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his remarkable contributions to mathematics and physics. He is one of only twenty-two living recipients of the honor Order of Merit. Sir Roger, as he is fondly known to other physicists, is a relentlessly creative genius. He has made profound contributions to an understanding of the structure of spacetime and geometry, black holes, the unification of quantum mechanics and gravity, and the origin of our universe. His radical ideas on consciousness have provoked controversy and fascination, while his playful geometric tilings were thought to be impossible in reality. Though intuition defying, Penrose tilings ignited the imaginations of filmmakers and artists and ultimately were discovered in nature. Join Pioneer Works Director of Sciences Janna Levin as she hosts Sir Roger Penrose in a conversation that will stretch across the universe, theories of consciousness, and infinity. 

Join us after the conversation for a book signing with Sir Penrose. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Weather permitting, there will also be stargazing with the Amateur Astronomers Association of NY in our garden.

Sir Roger Penrose, Order of Merit and Fellow of the Royal Society, is presently Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow at Wadham College. He won, among many other awards, the Wolf Prize in Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Hawking-Penrose Singularity Theorems. 

Janna Levin is the Chair and Director of the Science Studios at Pioneer Works. She is the Claire Tow Professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. Janna is a Guggenheim Fellow and a PEN-award winning novelist for a first work of fiction. She is the presenter of the NOVA feature Black Hole Apocalypse, aired on PBS—the first female presenter for NOVA in 35 years.

This project is supported by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science.