ABOUT

Sir Roger Penrose is a British mathematician and a philosopher of science. Our name honors his life, approach, work, and spirit.

Penrose has a special reputation as a mentor and creative collaborator across a wide array of interests and traditions; Carlo Rovelli wrote in White Holes that Penrose “was like a wonderful older brother” to him and Lee Smolin. The trio first met when Rovelli and Smolin were working to cross-apply quantum theory techniques to general relativity, something Penrose had begun to explore with David Finkelstein some thirty-five years earlier.

We loved that Penrose shapes (here and here) — most notably the Penrose triangle — are impossible forms that can be depicted in a perspective drawing but cannot exist as solid objects. They stubbornly defy the rules of gravity (see also: Penrose stairs).

We were especially drawn to the idea of optical illusion insofar as it connotes paradox. Paradox can stop inquiry in its tracks or spur it on with new energy, depending on how we decide to relate to it. Surely the more room we make in our brains for polarity, contradiction, and more than one thing being simultaneously true, the better.

Penrose shapes are also playful — they manage to surprise and delight just as much as they may defy or frustrate; they are winningly rebellious and satisfyingly evasive.

While the impossible shape was first designed by Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd in 1934 (at the age of 18 while drawing randomly in his Latin class), it gained widespread attention in the 1950s when psychiatrist Lionel Penrose and his son Sir Roger Penrose independently expressed it as a “pure impossibility.”

The younger Penrose, a mathematician and philosopher, would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020. His work has been instrumental in cosmology and relativity, as well as quantum computing. Penrose also won the Wolf Prize in Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for their Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems.

Finally, “pure impossibilities” not only represent a certain defiance of logic and reality; they also live at the fascinating (and often stunning) intersection of art and mathematics, illustrated by convergent boundaries that nonetheless remain fleeting. The two have always had a special relationship. Math is, after all, a language for describing three-dimensional space, but art still manages to say things that numbers cannot.

You will not be surprised to learn that Penrose had a long-running dialogue with the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, whose earlier depictions of impossible objects partly inspired Penrose’s work; in turn, Escher's Waterfall and Ascending and Descending were inspired by Penrose.

Here is Escher’s view on the matter:

“I do indeed believe that there is a certain contrast between people in scientific professions and people working in the arts. Often there is even mutual suspicion and irritation, and in some cases, one group greatly undervalues the other. Perhaps there is a transitional group, like the green between the yellow and the blue of the rainbow. This transitional group believes that one cannot do without either the one or the other.”

Penrose is a love letter to science, and to you — its most intriguing practitioners and stewards. It is an expression of admiration, gratitude, optimism, and support.

Penrose is also where you can let your guard down amongst true peers and reconnect to the reasons we do our work in the first place. We want you to learn more than you teach for the first time in perhaps a while, and we want you to have real fun doing it. We aim to energize and galvanize, and we believe that very good things will happen as a result.

We also believe, like you surely do, that science and scientists should enjoy a high profile, consistent funding, and broad-based participation. We have grave concerns that science literacy and science appreciation are not widespread. We think that foundational information about how to do science should be public, accessible, and equitable. We want tool-level barriers to science to fall precipitously, and we are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure science benefits everyone.

We also have a pretty good hunch that we’re going to have to science our way out of most of the big problems we collectively face today. And we are seeing that most if not all of those problems are interdisciplinary in nature. Cancer is also an AI problem. Geothermal is also a materials problem. mRNA is also a political problem. And art + storytelling has more than a little bit to do with all of it.

In the science world we’ve already got silos aplenty. We have a conviction that the future of science will be overwhelmingly intersectional. This runs through every aspect of Penrose and its programming.

Perhaps most importantly, we think that science needs to have a real seat at the most important tables in business, culture, community, and government, helping ensure good and sound decision-making as the pace of change quickens exponentially. Science needs and deserves more power, and we need to start talking pretty explicitly about how to make that happen.

Of course, the leap we are asking you to make is that if we assemble a group of people who a.) agree with most or all of this, and b.) are capable of unusual depth and commitment, Penrose will be of great consequence, both personally and professionally.

To that last point and finally, there’s a social element to Penrose that underwrites everything else. The daily, weekly, and monthly work of science is lonely. Yet, we know that transformation happens best in groups. The ultimate reason to attend Penrose is each other.

In terms of setup and agenda, Penrose is most definitely not a conference or tradeshow in the traditional sense. It’s invite-only, and it’s non-commercial in both its design and implementation (though science commercialization is very much on the menu.)

We’ve also always thought of Penrose as a community first and foremost, and over time you’ll see this design principle grow more prominent. Attendee feedback from our inaugural gathering made it clear that something special is trying to happen and we will continue building our community with year-round engagements.

Put another way, we want you to join Penrose, not just attend Penrose. This October we'll invite you into some expectation-making as we organize follow-on opportunities that involve working shoulder-to-shoulder to get stuff done in the real world in smaller groups.

Penrose was instigated by JDI, led by Josh Jones-Dilworth, Risa Fielder, Rebecca Ewing, Talia Bromberg, Damaris Alfonso, Shanna Gerlach, Doug Freeman, and Tony Fassi.

JDI is a boutique consultancy on a mission to help make precedent-setting science companies well-known and understood. The firm works with startups and large companies alike; we have clients and colleagues in almost every corner of the science world.

JDI is also co-owner of Nautilus magazine and Josh sits on the Nautilus Board of Directors; Nautilus is our media partner.

Penrose is governed by a volunteer Steering Committee who have generously donated their time to its creation and operation. Our Steering Committee includes:

Daphne Kis— President, WorldQuant University and co-founder, Litmus Health (investor @Fire Island Ventures, fmr. CEO of EDVenture and PC Forum)

Esther Dyson— Founder, Wellville (fmr. techy, court jEsther, working on a new book called “Don’t rent your (community’s) health from an absentee landlord!")

Todd Hansen— Executive Producer, Web Summit

Nancy Harvey— Sr. Dir.,Illinois Ventures (fmr. EIR and Managing Director of Technology Commercialization at UChicago, President of WolframAlpha)

Candice Nobles— CEO, Effin Relax (serial CMO, fmr: Leia, Papers & Ink, Liquidspace, Radar Networks)

David Krakauer— President and Prof. of Complex Systems, Santa Fe Institute (founding Dir. at Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, fmr. co-Dir. at Center for Complexity and Collective Computation, fmr Fellow at Genomics Frontiers Institute at UPenn, long-term Fellow Institute for Advanced Study)

Nicholas Brysiewicz— Dir. Strategy, Long Now Foundation (advisor: Invisible Technologies, Wikitongues, Aligned Capital, Future of Good)

Daniel Goodwin— Co-founder and Executive Director, Homeworld Collective (fmr: MIT Media Lab, Simons Foundation)

Andy Hickl— CTO, Allen Institute (fmr. Head of Azure AI Platform at MSFT, fmr. CPO at Intel Cognitive Solutions Group, fmr. Senior Director of Innovation at Vulcan)

Nicholas White— Co-owner and CEO, Nautilus; CEO, Fragment Media Group; co-founder and CEO, The Daily Dot

Noah Spirakus— Co-founder, Artemis Foundation; CEO, J2 Capital (fmr: AngelList, Prospectify, Bold Financial Technologies)

Rick Lovered— Program Director, National Academy of Sciences Science & Entertainment Exchange

John Wilbanks— Head of Data, Astera Institute

Adam Marbelstone— CEO, Convergent Research

Sanjay Srivatsan— Assistant Professor, Fred Hutch Cancer Center

Aaron Mertz— Founder and Executive Director, Science and Society Program, The Aspen Institute

Sara Holoubek— Founding Partner and CEO, Luminary Labs

Amy Brand— Director and Publisher, The MIT Press

Our Event Producer is Autumn Rich, alongside her company Panacea Collective. Autumn not only ran events at the White House, but also helped C3 build Austin City Limits Music Festival and Lollapalooza from scratch. Panacea has produced events for The 19th, Culturati, The Texas Tribune, the LBJ Foundation, Waterloo Greenway, Arlyn Studios, Brené Brown, The Contemporary, Headspace, the Austin Food and Wine Festival, and Texas Monthly. Panacea is world class in every way and has collaborated with our founding team serially. They create deeply emotional experiences that are as moving as they are beautiful.