SR Srinivasa Varadhan is an American mathematician known for his fundamental contributions to probability theory. He is considered one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century. He is the Frank J. Gould Professor of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Shri in the fields of literature and education, and in 2023, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s second highest civilian honor, for his distinguished and distinguished services.
Wiki/Biography
Sathamangalam Ranga Iyengar Srinivasa Varadhan was born on Tuesday, January 2, 1940 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India (age 83; as of 2023). As a child, he grew up in a few small towns not far from Madras.
7-year-old Sathamangalam wearing traditional Brahmin costume
In 1954, he moved to Tambaram, a suburb of Madras, to live with his uncle and enter a local college, which required two years of study before entering college. He completed his schooling from Board High School, Ponnery, Madras. He graduated from Presidency College, Madras in 1960 and received a Bachelor of Science in Statistics in 1957 and a Master of Science in Statistics in 1959. When Varadhan was studying at university, he encountered many difficulties due to the language barrier: he could not understand the English spoken by his teachers. Therefore, he learned Tamil and English. He received his PhD in philosophy from the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, in 1963, and later served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Courant Institute in New York.
SR Srinivasa Varadhan (third from left) poses with Kolmogorov during his visit to India in 1962
appearance
Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
Eye color: dark brown
family and caste
He belonged to a Hindu Brahmin Tamil family in Madras (now Chennai).
Parents and siblings
His father, Ranga Iyengar, was a science teacher who later became the principal of Ponneri Board High School in Madras. Langa Iyengar was born in 1899 and married at the age of 18. Srinivasa’s mother was only 10 years old when she married Ranga Iyengar. Srinivasa was the only son of his parents.
SR Srinivasa Varadhan and his father
In 2007, while accepting the Abel Prize, Varadhan thanked his parents and quoted:
Education was always a priority in our family and I received constant encouragement from my parents. “
wife and children
In June 1964, he married Vasundra Varadhan, one of the famous academicians. Vasu Varadhan holds a PhD in media studies and is a faculty member at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Studies. She has taught a variety of interdisciplinary seminars on media theory, identity in a multicultural world, ancient Indian literature, and South Asian literature, with a special focus on emerging Indian writers in the diaspora.
1964 SR Srinivasa Varadhan and Vasundra Varadhan
The couple has two sons, Gopal and Ashok. Their eldest son Gopalakrishnan Varadhan was born in 1969 and Ashok in 1972. In August 2001, Gopal joined Cantor Fitzgerald as managing director of its U.S. interest rate derivatives business, but Gopal was killed in downtown New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center at the age of 32.
other relatives
His younger son Ashok is married to Maggie and has a son named Gavin.
Profession
In 1963, under the recommendation of American mathematician and New York University professor Monroe D. Donsker, he began to work at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, initially as a postdoctoral fellow until 1966.
SR Srinivasa Varadhan and Monroe Donsker
Varadhan became an assistant professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in 1966 and was promoted to associate professor in 1968. Five years later he was appointed professor. He served as Director of the Courant Institute for four years (1980 to 1984), after which Varadhan took a leave of absence from 1984 to 1985; however, he was reappointed as Director of the Courant Institute in 1992. In 1995, Varadan became a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2001, he was elected as the director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences for the 2002-03 term. He was elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2004, a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2009, and a fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012.
research work
In addition to mathematical physics and fluid dynamics, he has conducted extensive research on stochastic processes. He is widely recognized for his work on large deviations in collaboration with Monroe D. Donsker. Later, Varadan was appointed professor at the Courant Institute. Mr. Varadhan collaborated with American mathematician and probabilist Daniel W. Stroock to study diffusion processes.
SR Srinivasa Varadhan (left) and Daniel W. Stroock
Varadhan’s major contributions to the field of mathematics include diffusion equations and partial differential equations, large deviation theory, the martingale problem and Varadhan’s lemma. In 1974, he wrote a book called Mathematical Statistics based on lectures and monographs co-authored by Daniel Stroock. Among his works, which received the Leroy P. Steele Award in 1996, was his 1979 book “Multidimensional Diffusion Processes.” He wrote several books, including Diffusion Problems and Partial Differential Equations (1980) and Large Deviations and Applications (1984). In 2001, he wrote “Probability Theory” based on lectures in a first-year graduate course taught by Varadhan from 1996 to 1999 at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.
Awards and Honors
Awards
- 1994: AMS-SIAM George David Birkhoff Award
- 1995: Margaret and Herman Sokol Prize, NYU College of Arts and Sciences
- 1996: American Mathematical Society (AMS) jointly receives the Leroy P. Steele Research Contribution Award with Daniel W Stroock for their work on diffusion processes
- 2007: Awarded the Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for his contributions to probability theory and co-creation with Monroe D. Donsker of the Unified Theory of Large Deviations
King Harald V of Norway congratulates SR Srinivasa Varadhan on winning the 2007 Abel Prize
Honors and Qualifications
- 2004: He also received two honorary degrees from the Université Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris (2003) and from the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, India
- 2008: Padma Shri in Literature and Education
- 2010: Received the National Medal of Science for his research in probability theory
In 2010, Barack Obama awarded SR Srinivasa Varadhan the National Medal of Science
scholarship
- 1988: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1988: Third World Academy of Sciences
- 1991: Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Royal Society
- 2004: Indian Academy of Sciences
- 2009: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
- 2012: American Mathematical Society
Facts/Trivia
- Raghu is affectionately called by his friends and colleagues.
- When he was in his senior year of high school, his math teacher took a special interest in a small group of students, including Vardhan, and asked them to come to his house on the weekends to work on some math problems. Vardhan recalled in his autobiography that his teachers convinced him that solving mathematical problems or puzzles was quite fun.
- He received his PhD at the age of 23.
- In an interview, while talking about Varadhan’s childhood ambitions, he revealed that when he was young, he dreamed of becoming a doctor and said,
But one time, a group of high school classmates and I went to a medical exhibit at the local medical school, where medical students demonstrated their surgical skills on cadavers. This put a stop to my desire to enter the medical field. “
- According to Varadhan, physics was his favorite subject during his school days.
- He has chaired the Infosys Prize Mathematical Sciences Jury since 2009 and was the chief guest in 2020.
SR Srinivasa Varadhan serves as co-chairman of Infosys Awards 2019 jury
- In an interview, Varadhan expressed his interest in traveling and listening to music, both classical Indian and classical Western music. He also said he enjoys going to concerts, theaters and movies.
- Varadhan is an avid reader and loves reading Tamil literature.
- When Varadhan applied to Presidency College, Madras, he was rejected as a major in chemistry, so he chose statistics.
- While he was studying in Calcutta, Varadan gave a lecture on his thesis before three examiners, among whom was the Soviet mathematician Andrei Kolmogorov. According to Varadhan, he took extra time and due to this the lecture became boring and the audience started leaving. He recalled the incident in an interview and said:
I’ve been talking for too long. The audience grew restless and some left before Kolmogorov stood up to comment. He threw down the chalk and walked out angrily. My first reaction was “my PhD is gone”. A group of us followed him to his room and I apologized profusely for talking too long. His answer: “I’m used to long seminars in Moscow. But when Kolmogorov wants to speak, people should listen.”
- In 1963, Varadan received a paper report from Andrei Kolmogorov sent from Moscow, Russia. In the report, Kolmogorov was full of praise for Varadan, writing that Varadan was a man “whose future the country can look forward to with pride and hope.”
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education