Archives - Mathematics: Page 4
Author: paul carson (Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:53 am)
Title: NOBEL PRIZE
Indian-born mathematician, Srinivasa S R Varadhan has been awarded the Norwegian Abel Prize or the Nobel Prize for mathematics. Varadhan was cited for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for a unified theory of large deviations.Varadhan, born 1940 in Chennai, currently teaches at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and his theories have proved useful in a broad range of fields, including quantum field theory, statistical physics, population dynamics, econometrics and finance, and traffic engineering. He is now a US citizen.Varadhan, who is known as Raghu first came to Courant as a post-doctoral fellow in 1963 and has spent his entire professional life there, serving two terms as its director (1980-1984, and 1992-94).In mathematics, probability theory is the tool used to analyse situations governed by chance, while his theory of large deviations was said to have provided explanations applicable in "fields as diverse as quantum field theory, statistical physics, population dynamics, econometrics and finance, and traffic engineering".The award is worth 6 million kroner ($920,000). The Indian-born mathematician is the second NYU winner of the award in three years.“We are so happy and proud of Raghu. Not only is he an outstanding scholar, he is also a kind and wonderful colleague, a devoted teacher, and an exemplary ‘University citizen,’ serving with dedication and professionalism as director of the Courant Institute and on such bodies as the University Senate. This distinction is a well-deserved honor for a faculty member whose modesty and discretion are almost as great as his scholarly contributions. In the time that Raghu has been at NYU, our University has changed a great deal, but it is the persistent presence of scholars such as he that has enabled us to build NYU into what it is today and to continue to attract top scholars and researchers to our midst. I ask the entire NYU community to join me in congratulating Raghu,” NYU President John Sexton said.Varadhan - a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society and the Third World Academy of Sciences - has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Birkhoff Prize (1994), the Margaret and Herman Sokol Award of NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Science (1995), and the American Mathematical Society’s Leroy Steele Prize (1996), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received his B.Sc. honors degree and M.A. from Madras University, and his Ph.D. from the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta withthe distinguished Indian statistician C.R. Rao as his thesis advisor.Varadhan has held visiting positions at Stanford University (1976–77), the Mittag-Leffler Institute (1972), and the Institute for Advanced Study (1991–92). Varadhan was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (1970–72) and a Guggenheim Fellow (1984–85).Srinivasa Varadhan is married to Vasundra Varadhan, who is a professor at New York University. They have one son, Ashok. Their eldest son, Gopal, was one of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Twin Towers.The Abel Prize was created in 2002 to commemorate the 200th centenary of the birth of Niels Henrik Abel. The Norwegian is acknowledged as one of the great names in mathematics although he died only aged 26.
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