Roger Penrose is one of the recipients of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. The British mathematical physicist was honoured for his discovery that black-hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.

In this interview with Physics World’s Tushna Commissariat, recorded in 2015, Penrose looks back to the early years of his career as a PhD student at the University of Cambridge.

Speaking at the “Celebrating 100 Years of General Relativity” event at Queen Mary University of London, Penrose also looks to the future of his field. He believes that in the long-standing quest to unify the theories of gravity and quantum mechanics, it is quantum theory that must be modified significantly beyond its current form.