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These two films explore the development of Sir Roger Penrose’s thought over more than 60 years, ending with his most recent theories and predictions.

In the first film, Roger Penrose explains the impact of his time at Cambridge in the 1950s. The interview brings out his highly unconventional choice of subjects for deep study, which completely ignored the boundary between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ mathematics. Those familiar with his world-leading development of relativity theory in the 1960s may be surprised to learn how much he was influenced by quantum theory in the 1950s, and also by the early origin of his new ideas.

Roger also explains the influence of Dirac, Sciama and other leading figures of the 1950s, and goes on to characterise the emergence of twistor theory. Non-experts will be interested to hear how the ideas of his best-known work, The Emperor’s New Mind, also had an origin in this early period. He also adds fascinating detail about the psychology of mathematical discovery, explaining how he was very slow at school, needing extra time to think issues through for himself. The mystery of time, in physics and human consciousness, runs through the entire conversation, and lights up even the most technical aspects of the discussion. 

In the second film, the emphasis shifts to the recent developments in Roger Penrose’s thought. He gives a very clear outline of his argument for Conformal Cyclic Cosmology as the correct description of the Big Bang. However,  the conversation turns once again to the precursors of these ideas in the 1950s, with new anecdotes about Dirac and the origin of Roger Penrose’s geometrical innovations.

Bringing the discussion up to the present moment, Roger describes the impact of recent observations of primordial magnetic fields and also addresses the significance of his own predictions for the form of ‘dark matter’. And in a closing segment, the discussion turns to the current discoveries in neurology and biophysics relevant to Roger Penrose’s theory of microtubules as advanced in Shadows of the Mind. The discussion ends tantalisingly with renewed speculation on the foundations of quantum mechanics and its relation to general relativity.

Roger concludes: "to me eternity is not such a long time."

Associate Professor Mason Porter has won the 2014 Erdős–Rényi Prize. The prize is awarded to a selected young scientist (under 40 years old on the day of the nomination deadline) for their achievements in research activities in the area of network science, broadly construed. While the achievements can be both theoretical and experimental, the prize is aimed at emphasizing outstanding contributions relevant to the interdisciplinary progress of network science.

The prize awarding ceremony and lecture took take place in a special session at the conference portion of NetSci 2014 on Jun 2-6, 2014 in Berkeley California, at the Claremont Hotel and the Clark Kerr Campus of the University of California.

Congratulations to Professor Fernando Alday who won the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) Teaching Award in the “Most Acclaimed Lecturer” category for the Mathematical, Physical & Life Sciences Division.

Congratulations to Professors Endre Süli and Fernando Alday who have been nominated for Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) Teaching Awards in the “Most Acclaimed Lecturer” category.

Described by Alain Goriely as "a one-man scientific orchestra," Raymond Goldstein is Schlumberger Professor of Complex Physical Systems, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge and an internationally recognised leader in the fields of biological physics and nonlinear dynamics. In this engaging lecture, 'Animalcules Redux: the Fantastic World of Microswimmers', he focuses on biological fluid dynamics.

From Henry Whitehead's pigs to a personal perspective on the physical and intellectual growth of mathematics in Oxford, Michael Atiyah delves deep in to his memories of a lifetime in academia.

During his long mathematical career, Dan Quillen, Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics in Oxford from 1984-2006, kept a set of detailed notes which give a day-to-day record of his mathematical research.  His notebooks have been digitised in a project funded by the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) and made available to the mathematics community on the CMI website. Glenys Luke and Graeme Segal are working on cataloguing the material.  So far, the work has been completed up to the end of 1977.

The new Mathematical Institute here in Oxford is one of 11 buildings to have won an RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) South Regional Award 2014.

Images courtesy of Rafael Viñoly Architects, © Will Pryce

This week's Radio 4 Inside Science programme includes a feature on the mathematics of the new Mathematical Institute here in Oxford. Professor Alain Goriely, Bruno Toledo from Architects Rafael Viñoly and Oxford Mathematics students discuss Penrose Tiling, arithmetical progressions and crystals.

Iain Smears, a third-year D.Phil student in the Mathematical Institute here in Oxford and a member of Worcester College has won one of the three SIAM Student Paper Prizes this year for his journal article “Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Approximation of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Equations with Cordes Coefficients,” published in the SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis.

The SIAM Student Paper Prizes will be awarded during the course of the 2014 SIAM Annual Meeting, to be held July 7-11 in Chicago, Illinois.