Roger Penrose

A mathematician, Nobel Prize in Physics! The 2020 Nobel Prize, awarded to Sir Roger Penrose, Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel, is an opportunity to look back on the beautiful story of an exceptional scholar, passionate and enthusiastic, whose work in topology helped clarify our understanding of black holes. His training in pure mathematics concluded with a thesis in algebraic geometry. His ingenious discovery of impossible figures and aperiodic tilings made him known to the general public. The establishment of the first theorem on singularities in general relativity led to the justification of the existence of black holes. Sir Roger Penrose, generous with his time and energy, delivers in this issue of Tangente an exclusive interview.

The now traditional Maths Week will have the theme in 2021 "Mathematics and society". A vast subject, which led the editorial team to choose a "philosophical" perspective that questions the mathematization of life in society and social interactions. From democratic questions - "Does the aggregate of individual rationalities necessarily lead to the general interest?" - to high-performance computing tools needed to process large volumes of data, including the counting of demonstrators or the use of graphs to model social proximity, the subjects are varied. Another approach to the theme will be covered in issue 56 of Tangente Éducation, under the title: "Mathematical mindset, critical thinking".