In 2020, Roger Penrose received the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity,” work he did along with his team in the 1960s. He is also a mathematician, philosopher, and the author of several books, including 1989’s The Emperor’s New Mind, an exploration of consciousness and quantum mechanics, which not only had a profound influence on me in my youth but is also part of why I chose to write a popular science book myself. (That Roger Penrose blurbed my book was a thrilling capstone.) Today, he is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, among many other distinctions. Not only is Roger Penrose relentlessly curious, but he’s also fascinated by seemingly everything, from biology to black holes to consciousness. To the layperson, these might seem to all be similar esoteric theoretical activities, but to a physicist, they couldn’t be more different. The fact that he can switch from a completely theoretical field, such as studies of the Big Bang, to a completely applicable one, like investigating the brain, is breathtaking to me. And he has had success in all of his fields.

Most people’s work is either deep or broad. Roger’s is both. It’s the result of an incredible work ethic, a thorough imagination, and sheer longevity. He was eighty-nine years old when he won the Nobel Prize in 2020 and is still going strong. He doesn’t give up, even when people consider his ideas on the outskirts of possibility. I deeply admire and try to emulate that kind of maverick self-determination to go where your curiosity takes you and your passions drive you, even if it’s heterodox. 

Available on Amazon: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner 

About Professor Brian Keating:

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