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CORVALLIS - Sir Roger Penrose, a world leader in mathematics and theoretical physics, will explore the workings of the brain and the nature of the human mind in a lecture on Thursday, Oct. 2, at Oregon State University.

Titled "The Large, the Small and the Human Mind," the presentation will be at 7:30 p.m. in Austin Auditorium of the LaSells Stewart Center. It is free and open to the public.

Sir Roger has developed radical new concepts which suggest, among other things, that some aspects of the human mind and its conscious activity lie beyond computation, and will find no explanation in terms of present-day sciences such as quantum physics. He does not argue that the mind is something other than physical, however, and says a new science may eventually succeed in explaining its physical basis.

Sir Roger, who was knighted in 1994, is the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, and is particularly well known for his work on black holes, quantum gravity, aperiodic tiling and the science of the mind. He has authored numerous professional publications, advanced research monographs, and two popular books.

The lecture is co-sponsored by OSU and Institute for Science, Engineering and Public Policy.