Professor Neena Gupta from Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata has been awarded the Ramanujan prize and is now the fourth ever Indian and third woman to receive the award. She won the ‘2021 DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from developing countries’ for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, informed the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize committee, composed of eminent mathematicians from around the world, commented that Gupta’s work “shows impressive algebraic skill and inventiveness”.
Brief Note on The Ramanujan Prize
The Ramanujan Award was first introduced in the year 2005, to celebrate young mathematicians across the globe under the age of 45 who made extraordinary contributions in the fields of mathematics. The DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize is administered by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) jointly with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Government of India and the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
Ramanujan Prize is given annually to an eminent Mathematician who is less than 45 years of age on 31 December of the year of the award and has conducted outstanding research in developing countries by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste and is sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
Who Was Srinivasa Ramanujan?
The award is named after Srinivasan Ramanujan Aiyangar. Ramanujan was a great Indian Mathematician from India who, without receiving any formal education in math, produced volumes of mind-blowing mathematical theories. He was a fellow of the Royal Society at Cambridge University and was close to another groundbreaking mathematician G.H. Hardy.
Also Read: Grand Entry Gone Wrong: Raipur Couple Falls Off from Swing Attached to Crane, Video Goes Viral
Professor Gupta’s Contributions in Mathematics
For 38-year-old Professor Neena Gupta, this is not the first-time being awarded for her brilliance. She received the highest honor in India, in the field of Science & Technology, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award in ‘Mathematical Sciences’ in 2019. Her solutions for solving the Zariski Cancellation Problem, a fundamental problem in Algebraic Geometry, won her the Young Scientists Award of the Indian National Science Academy in 2014.
In an interview, Gupta said,
“The cancellation problem asks that if you have cylinders over two geometric structures, and that have similar forms, can one conclude that the original base structures have similar forms?”
Her work was postulated as ‘one of the best works in algebraic geometry in recent years done anywhere’.
Also Read: Chandigarh’s Harnaaz Sandhu is Miss Universe 2021, Brings Title to India after 21 Years
Gupta’s Early Life
Professor Gupta was a student of Khalsa High School, Dunlop. From a very young age she found mathematics to be her calling. She pursued her graduation from Bethune College and did her Masters and PhD from ISI, where she joined as a faculty member.
