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National

National

Ramanujan colloquium launched

Professor Manjul Bhargava delivers first lecture

GAINESVILLE: The University of Florida Mathematics Department has launched a new annual colloquium series called The Ramanujan Colloquium. Professor Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University delivered the First Ramanujan Colloquium entitled "Sums of squares and the 290 theorem" which are followed by three Number Theory Seminars with details of proofs.

The problem of representing integers as sums of squares has attracted a lot of attention ever since Lagrange in 1770 proved the beautiful result that every positive integer is a sum of (at most) four squares. Ramanujan raised the question of determining those quadratic forms, which would represent all integers.

In this connection, the celebrated Princeton mathematician John Conway recently made a conjecture. In collaboration with Jonathan Hanke of Duke University, Professor Bhargava solved Conway's 290 conjecture by devising ingeniously simple methods. These have also led to progress on the problem of determining which quadratic forms represent other types of numbers such as the primes.

The Ramanujan Colloquium in Florida is sponsored by Evan Pugh Professor George Andrews of The Pennsylvania State University, one of the world's greatest experts on Ramanujan's work. Since 2005, Mr. Andrews is Distinguished Visiting Professor each Spring term at the University of Florida.

Professor Krishnaswami Alladi, Chairman of the Florida Mathematics Department, said the number theorists there formed one of the strongest groups in the world on mathematics related to Ramanujan's work. Professor Andrews had strong ties with the number theory group at Florida through research collaborations. "The regular presence of Professor Andrews in our department has raised the quality of our number theory program significantly. We appreciate Professor Andrews' support by sponsoring this annual colloquium in the name of Ramanujan," said Professor Alladi.

Professor Bhargava, at the young age of 32, is one of the most eminent mathematicians in the world. When appointed full professor at Princeton at the age of 28 soon after his PhD, he was the youngest to hold that high rank at that hallowed institution of higher learning. Professor Bhargava was the recipient of the First SASTRA Ramanujan Prize in December 2005. He presented a proof of Conway's conjecture relating to Ramanujan's problem at SASTRA University, Kumbakonam on Ramanujan's birthday, December 22, 2005.

In his Ramanujan Colloquium at Florida, Professor Bhargava reported further progress. Professor Alladi said the Ramanujan Colloquium was off to a fine start with the lectures of a mathematician of eminence such as Professor Bhargava.

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