Anupam Saikia is an Indian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and at present professor in the Department of Mathematics at

IIT Guwahati The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) is a public technical university established by the Government of India, located in Amingaon area, North Guwahati city, in the state of Assam in India. It is the sixth Indian Institute ...

, India. He is known for his work related to arithmetic number theory, in particular applications to

Iwasawa Theory In number theory, Iwasawa theory is the study of objects of arithmetic interest over infinite towers of number fields. It began as a Galois module theory of ideal class groups, initiated by (), as part of the theory of cyclotomic fields. In the ea ...

and p-adic measures. He has also published articles in mathematical cryptography.

Biography

Saikia qualified his school leaving examinations from Govt. Higher Secondary School,

Golaghat Golaghat ( ''Gʊlaɡʱat'' ) one of the largest subdivisions of the Indian state of Assam, later elevated to the position of a full–fledged district headquarter on 5 October 1987, is a city and a municipality and the seat of administrative ...

, Assam, in 1989. Then, he did his pre-university studies at

Cotton College, Guwahati Cotton University (formerly known as ''Cotton College'') is a public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established in 2017 by the provisions of an Act from the Assam Legislative Assembly which merged Cotton College Sta ...

until 1991 and joined

St. Stephen's College, Delhi St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, widely regarded as one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India. It was established in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. The college ...

for his Bachelors in Mathematics. After his B.Sc. degree in 1994, he joined

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

and became a wrangler in 1996. He completed his Certificate for Advanced Study in Mathematics (Mathematical Tripos, Part III) at Trinity College in 1997 with distinction, and then pursued his PhD degree from the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge, which he received in 2001 for a thesis titled ''Iwasawa Theory of Lubin-Tate Division Towers and p-Adic L-Functions'' under the supervision of John Coates. Since his PhD, Saikia has held post doctoral positions at several institutes, including IHES, France and McGill University, Canada. Following a brief period of time at

IIT, Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranke ...

, Saikia has been a member of the faculty at IIT, Guwahati since 2005, becoming full professor in 2015. At various times, he has held several administrative positions in IIT, Guwahati as well. Saikia is also a keen sportsperson and was captain of the Trinity College Badminton team in 1999-99, as well as member of its cricket team. He is also an enthusiastic chess and carom player. He lives in Guwahati with his wife and children.

Awards and honours

Saikia has won several awards and scholarships during his career. He won the Ramanujan Scholarship to pursue his studies at Cambridge, given to one Indian student each year. He was awarded the Smith and Knight Prize in the annual mathematics essay competition for second year Ph.D. students at the University of Cambridge in 1999 and the Senior Rouseball Scholarship, awarded by Trinity College, Cambridge on the basis of postgraduate research work in 2000-2001.

Professional Contributions

Saikia has written several research papers so far related to

, p-adic measures,

Cyclotomic field In number theory, a cyclotomic field is a number field obtained by adjoining a complex root of unity to , the field of rational numbers. Cyclotomic fields played a crucial role in the development of modern algebra and number theory because of th ...

s and

Euler System In mathematics, an Euler system is a collection of compatible elements of Galois cohomology groups indexed by fields. They were introduced by in his work on Heegner points on modular elliptic curves, which was motivated by his earlier paper and ...

s. He has so far guided 6 students under him for their Ph.D dissertation. He is also associated with giving several popular lectures for school and college students in different places of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

as well as in other parts of the country. He has also edited two volumes of conference proceedings related to Wiles' Proof of the Iwasawa's Main Conjecture and Bloch-Kato Conjectures. He is the editor-in-chief of Journal of the Assam Academy of Mathematics and a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the

Ramanujan Mathematical Society Ramanujan Mathematical Society is an Indian organisation of persons formed with the aim of "promoting mathematics at all levels". The Society was founded in 1985 and registered in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. Professor G. Shankaranarayan ...

and the Bulletin of the Mathematics Teachers' Association (India).

References

External links

Personal HomepageInterview in Assamese
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saikia, Anupam Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati 21st-century Indian mathematicians Living people Indian Institutes of Technology people Indian number theorists Assamese people Year of birth missing (living people)