Description
Speaker: Ken Ono.
Affiliation: University of Virginia.
Date and Time: Friday, 06 December 2019, 4.00pm - 5.00pm.
Venue: A1A2, CDEEP.
Note: This is a web-cast through NKN of a lecture at TIFR at the same time.
Title: Why Does Ramanujan, “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” Matter?
Abstract: Srinivasa Ramanujan, one of the most inspirational figures in
the history of mathematics, was an amateur gifted mathematician from lush
south India who left behind three notebooks that engineers,
mathematicians, and physicists continue to mine today. Born in 1887,
Ramanujan was a two-time college dropout. He could have easily been lost
to the world, a thought that scientists cannot begin to absorb. He died
in 1920. Prof. Ono will explain why Ramanujan matters today and will
share several clips from the film, “The Man Who Knew Infinity,”
starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons. Professor Ono served as an associate
producer and mathematical consultant for the film.
About the Speaker:
Prof. Ken Ono is the Thomas Jefferson Professor of Mathematics at the
University of Virginia, the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Mathematics
at Emory University and Vice President of the American Mathematical
Society. He is considered an expert in number theory. His contributions
include several monographs and more than 180 research and popular
articles in number theory, combinatorics and
algebra. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA and has received many awards for
his research in number theory, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a
Packard Fellowship and a Sloan Research Fellowship. He was awarded a
Presidential Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE) by Bill
Clinton in 2000 and was named a Distinguished Teaching Scholar by the
National Science Foundation in 2005. He is also a member of the US
National Committee for Mathematics and
the National Academy of Sciences. He was an associate producer of the film
“The Man Who Knew Infinity” based on the life of Indian mathematician
Srinivasa Ramanujan.