Aug 14 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Maths wizard honed skills with orange pyramid
CanadianAmerican mathematician of Indian-origin who has mastered Sanskrit and plays tabla at concert level has been awarded the Fields Medal, the Nobel Prize equivalent for math.Manjul Bhargava, who became a tenured full professor at Princeton University — the second youngest in its history — within two years of finishing graduate school, was among four winners of the prestigious prize announced at the International Mathematical Union (IMU) Congress in Seoul on Tuesday.
A surprise and welcome co-winner was Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian mathematician who teaches at Stanford University. It is the first time a woman has won the Fields medal; all 52 previous winners have been men in a field traditionally dominated by men. Expectedly, it created a ripple in the rarefied world of maths.
The two other Fields Medal winners for 2014 are Artur Ávila from Brazil and Martin Hairer from Austria.
Avila is also the first Brazilian and Latin American to win the medal.
The IMU also presented Princeton alumnus Subhash Khot, a New York University professor of computer and an IIT-Bombay alumnus, with the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, which honours “outstanding contributions in mathematical aspects of information sciences“.
Though a CanadianAmerican who was born in Ontario, 40-year-old Bhargava is no stranger to India or to Indian mathematicians; indeed, he has deep connections to India. His mother, Mira, is herself a rare woman mathematician, teaching at Hofstra University , New York. Manjul has also collaborated with many Indian mathematicians. Manjul's work with fellow Princeton scholar Arul Shankar, his PhD student, won them the Fermat Prize in 2011. Manjul's own PhD advisor was Andrew Wiles, famous for proving Fermat's last theorem.
Bhargava is also an accomplished tabla player -he was tutored by Zakir Hussain -and has the number on Sanskrit, which he learned from his grandfather Purushottam Lal Bhargava, who was the head of the Sanskrit department of the University of Rajasthan, during family visits to Jaipur. He sees close links between his three loves -maths, music, and Sanskrit -noting how beats of tabla and rhythms of Sanskrit poetry are highly mathematical.
In several past interviews, he has often recounted how in Grade 3, he became curious about how many oranges it takes to make a pyramid.
Just as well his mathematician mother and chemist father were well-to-do, they indulged him with oranges till he figured out the answer, which was not long coming.
Now he's at the pinnacle of his calling.
Meanwhile, Mirzakhani's success was “hugely symbolic and I hope it will encourage more women to get into mathematics because we need more women. I am very happy that now we can put to rest that particular `it has never happened before',“ Ingrid Daubechies, who is herself the first woman president of the IMU, said while announcing the award.
One to four Fields Medals are awarded once every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 years at the International Congress of the IMU, which meets every four years. The award presentation will take place in Seoul on Wednesday at the quadrennial IMU Congress.
Though the prize money of $15,000 is chump change -approximately1/100th -compared to the Nobel Prize, the award, long dominated by Americans, Russians, French, and Britons (38 medals between them), is the highest recognition in the world of mathematics.
Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields instituted it at a time mathematicians felt short-changed that they had no Nobel recognition. The Nobel Prize is awarded for literature, peace, economics etc. but not for mathematics.
Legend goes that the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who instituted the Nobel Prize, disdained mathematics after someone he loved cheated on him with a mathematician.
But there is no historical basis to the story .
For the full report, log on to www.timesofindia.com
A surprise and welcome co-winner was Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian mathematician who teaches at Stanford University. It is the first time a woman has won the Fields medal; all 52 previous winners have been men in a field traditionally dominated by men. Expectedly, it created a ripple in the rarefied world of maths.
The two other Fields Medal winners for 2014 are Artur Ávila from Brazil and Martin Hairer from Austria.
Avila is also the first Brazilian and Latin American to win the medal.
The IMU also presented Princeton alumnus Subhash Khot, a New York University professor of computer and an IIT-Bombay alumnus, with the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, which honours “outstanding contributions in mathematical aspects of information sciences“.
Though a CanadianAmerican who was born in Ontario, 40-year-old Bhargava is no stranger to India or to Indian mathematicians; indeed, he has deep connections to India. His mother, Mira, is herself a rare woman mathematician, teaching at Hofstra University , New York. Manjul has also collaborated with many Indian mathematicians. Manjul's work with fellow Princeton scholar Arul Shankar, his PhD student, won them the Fermat Prize in 2011. Manjul's own PhD advisor was Andrew Wiles, famous for proving Fermat's last theorem.
Bhargava is also an accomplished tabla player -he was tutored by Zakir Hussain -and has the number on Sanskrit, which he learned from his grandfather Purushottam Lal Bhargava, who was the head of the Sanskrit department of the University of Rajasthan, during family visits to Jaipur. He sees close links between his three loves -maths, music, and Sanskrit -noting how beats of tabla and rhythms of Sanskrit poetry are highly mathematical.
In several past interviews, he has often recounted how in Grade 3, he became curious about how many oranges it takes to make a pyramid.
Just as well his mathematician mother and chemist father were well-to-do, they indulged him with oranges till he figured out the answer, which was not long coming.
Now he's at the pinnacle of his calling.
Meanwhile, Mirzakhani's success was “hugely symbolic and I hope it will encourage more women to get into mathematics because we need more women. I am very happy that now we can put to rest that particular `it has never happened before',“ Ingrid Daubechies, who is herself the first woman president of the IMU, said while announcing the award.
One to four Fields Medals are awarded once every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 years at the International Congress of the IMU, which meets every four years. The award presentation will take place in Seoul on Wednesday at the quadrennial IMU Congress.
Though the prize money of $15,000 is chump change -approximately1/100th -compared to the Nobel Prize, the award, long dominated by Americans, Russians, French, and Britons (38 medals between them), is the highest recognition in the world of mathematics.
Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields instituted it at a time mathematicians felt short-changed that they had no Nobel recognition. The Nobel Prize is awarded for literature, peace, economics etc. but not for mathematics.
Legend goes that the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who instituted the Nobel Prize, disdained mathematics after someone he loved cheated on him with a mathematician.
But there is no historical basis to the story .
For the full report, log on to www.timesofindia.com
