Professor Dr. Sir Roger Penrose is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and has received numerous prizes and awards, among them the 1988 Wolf Prize for Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for their joint contribution to our understanding of the universe. Prof. Sir Penrose has also written several books for the public, including ‘The Emperor’s New Mind’ and most recently ‘Cycles of Time’. The lecture was hold on 4 April 2012 at ETH Zurich, when Roger Penrose was awarded the Richard R. Ernst Medal.