Mathematician Ruixiang Zhang To Receive 2023 Sastra Ramanujan Prize

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(Source: The Hindu, 09/30/2023)

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Why in the news?

• Recently, Ruixiang Zhang, an Assistant Professor at the University of California was announced as the recipient of the 2023 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for his outstanding contributions in mathematics.
• Srinivasa Ramanujan is one of India’s most famous mathematicians who published nearly 30 research papers over a three-year period.

Who has been awarded the Sastra Ramanujan Prize 2023?

• The 2023 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize was awarded to Ruixiang Zhang, an Assistant Professor at the University of California in recognition of his work in areas such as analytic number theory, combinatorics, Euclidean harmonic analysis, and geometry.

Significant work

• He contributed to solving two long-standing problems in restriction theory:
  • Carleson’s problem on pointwise convergence of solutions to the Schr¨odinger equation
  • the two-dimensional case of Sogge’s local smoothing conjecture for wave equations.
• He proved a multivariable generalization of the main conjecture in Vinogradov’s Mean Value Theorem in collaboration with Shaoming Guo.
• He is also the recipient of a Sloan Fellowship (2022-24) and an NSF CAREER award (2022-27).

What is the Sastra Ramanujan Prize?

• The award was instituted by the Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) in 2005 in honor of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
• Cash prize: It consists of an annual cash prize of $10,000.
• Age limit: The age limit for the prize has been set at 32 in honor of Ramanujan’s brief life of 32 years.
• The 2023 edition of the award will be awarded at the international conference in Number Theory at SASTRA University in Kumbakonam, the hometown of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
• Award committee: The 2023 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize Committee comprised Krishnaswami Alladi as Chair (University of Florida), Don Blasius (University of California, Los Angeles), Sergei Konyagin (Lomonosov Moscow State University), Jonathan Pila (Oxford University), Bjorn Poonen (MIT), Zeev Rudnick (Tel Aviv University), and Wadim Zudilin (Radboud University, The Netherlands).

Srinivasa Ramanujan

• Srinivasa Ramanujan or Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode, India, and is considered to be one of India’s greatest mathematicians.
  • December 22nd is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India in his honor.
  • Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December as ‘State IT Day’.
  • Stamps picturing Ramanujan were issued by the government of India in 1962, 2011, 2012, and 2016.
  • The Ramanujan Math Park located in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, was inaugurated in 2017.
  • In 2021, a team of Israeli scientists developed a software tool called The Ramanujan Machine which creates mathematical conjectures that mathematicians attempt to prove.
• Although he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made significant contributions to areas such as mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, continued fractions, etc.
• He received his early education and schooling in Madras, where he was enrolled in a local school. His interest in mathematics developed at a young age and was mostly self-taught.
• He was invited to Cambridge in 1914 by the celebrated mathematician G.H Hardy and graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts in Research in 1916.
• In 1918 he was elected to the Royal Society of London and returned to India in 1919.
• He passed away on April 26th,1920 at the age of 32.

Contributions

• Game Theory: He contributed significantly to the development of the field of game theory through his intuitive discovery of unique solutions to challenging mathematical problems.
• Formulas and Equations: He compiled around 3,900 results of equations and identities including the infinite series for Pi.
  • He also developed unconventional formulas to calculate the digits of Pi.
• Hardy-Ramanujan partnership: Ramanujan and Hardy are credited with the identification of the Hardy-Ramunjan number (1729) which is the smallest number that can be expressed as a sum of two different cubes in two different ways.
  • They devised the circle method to derive an asymptomatic formula for this function.
  • They also developed a formula for the number p(n) of partitions of a number 'n'.
• Ramanujan’s Book: One of Ramanujan’s notebooks which was discovered at the Trinity College library was later published as a book.
  • He published around 30 research papers over a three-year period.

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FAQs

MCQs

Question: Consider the following statements:

1. December 22nd is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India in honor of Aryabhatta.
2. The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize is awarded by the Department of Science, GoI.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) None of the above

Question: A recent movie titled ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of (UPSC CSE 2016)

(a) S. Ramanujan

(b) S. Chandrasekhar

(c) S. N. Bose

(d) C. V. Raman