The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Stress on more mathematical research

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Sunday, Aug 03, 2008
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Stress on more mathematical research

Staff Reporter

Private companies told to come forward to help research activities

Photo: M. Vedhan

MOMENT OF HONOUR: DST Secretary T. Ramasami presenting medal for excellence for outstanding performance to Shiladitya Banerjee at the 6th annual convocation of the CMI in Siruseri on Friday. Chairman of Engineering Mechanical Unit at Jawaharlal Nehru for Advanced Scientific Research Roddam Narasimha (second from right) and CMI Director C.S. Seshadri are in the picture. —

CHENNAI: “I am interested in ‘Representation theories and related Combinatorics’,” said Shyamashree Upadhyay, who also confessed that she would miss dosas as she would be leaving Chennai soon. She is the first student to receive a doctoral degree in Mathematics from Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI), Siruseri, after it was made a deemed university.

She and other students were conferred their degrees at the sixth annual convocation held at the CMI, on Friday.

“In between reasonably good schools and reasonably good research institutions lies a black hole. It is called BSc,” said T. Ramasami, Secretary to the Department of Science and Technology. Presiding over the convocation, he said that by offering graduate courses in Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science in an atmosphere that lays stress on research, the CMI is helping bridge that black hole.

Speaking about the state of research, he said that he enumerated all publications and citations in various fields of studies and found that Mathematics was in the bottom 10 per cent.

Despite the country having extraordinary talent in Mathematics, the numbers continue to be low. “The challenge is to scale up without dilution,” he said.

The CMI has grown to have 19 faculty members and 13 postdoctoral fellows and research scholars, said C. S. Seshadri, CMI Director. The Institute is aided by Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Human Resources and Shriram Group of Companies and others from the private sector, making it a successful public-private partnership venture, he said.

“More private companies should come forward to help research,” said Roddam Narasimha, Chairman of Engineering Mechanical Unit at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, while delivering the convocation address.

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