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He rues nation’s neglect of mathematical research

In India, research in mathematics needs to be extended to all educational institutions, Prof. Varadhan says

Prof. S.R.S. Varadhan

Some people place him in the list of eminent mathematicians India produced in the last century. Though his career graph has always looked up, his crowning glory was when he was given the Abel Prize for Mathematics by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. S.R.S. Varadhan spoke to K. Manikandan about what went wrong in mathematical research in India, a country that gave the world zero.

“Importance was given to research in mathematics soon after Independence, but, somewhere down the line, it stopped,” Prof. Varadhan laments. He was recently at Tambaram, where he participated in a function to dedicate a cardio thoracic block named after him at the Hindu Mission Hospital. He is a Professor of Mathematics and Frank J. Gould Professor of Science at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, which is among the most prestigious institutes for mathematics and research.

“Train teachers”

In India, research in mathematics is restricted to a few premier institutes. It needs to be extended to all educational institutions, including schools. “It is equally important to train teachers in schools and colleges.”

Unlike countries such as the U.S. and Japan that have plenty of indigenous technologies with patents, India lacks them due to a declining interest in basic sciences and mathematics. If this trend is ignored the required developments in science and technology cannot be attained, Prof. Varadhan cautions.

India was once a superpower in mathematics, with Srinivasa Ramanujam striding the world like a colossus, leaving world-renowned mathematicians awestruck. Even before the times of Ramanujam, India’s list of scholars and eminent mathematicians is long. “Sadly, there is very little knowledge, both within India and abroad, about our greatness in mathematics.”

Prof. Varadhan studied in a government school at Ponneri and did intermediate in mathematics at Madras Christian College, Tambaram, in 1956. He graduated in B.Sc (Honours) Statistics from Presidency College, Chennai, and obtained his Ph.D from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He then went to Courant, where he has been serving ever since.

The Abel Prize presented to Prof. Varadhan states that his areas of work include probability theory, for which he is renowned, and large deviations that have applications in statistics, insurance and finance, among others.

He is married to Vasundhara, a professor in media studies in New York University. The couple’s eldest son, Gopal, died in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, where he was working. Their second son, Ashok (35), lives in the U.S.

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