Ganesh Prasad (15 November 1876 – 9 March 1935) was an Indian mathematician who specialised in the theory of potentials, theory of functions of a real variable,

Fourier series A Fourier series () is a summation of harmonically related sinusoidal functions, also known as components or harmonics. The result of the summation is a periodic function whose functional form is determined by the choices of cycle length (or ''p ...

and the theory of surfaces. He was trained at the Universities of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and on return to India he helped develop the culture of mathematical research in India. The mathematical community of India considers Ganesh Prasad as the ''Father of Mathematical Research in India''. He was also an educator taking special interest in the advancement of primary education in the

rural areas In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Early days

Ganesh Prasad was born on 15 November 1876 at

Ballia Ballia is a city with a municipal board in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh. The eastern boundary of the city lies at the junction of two major rivers, the Ganges River, Ganges and the Ghaghara River, Gh ...

, Uttar Pradesh. He obtained the B.A. degree from

Muir Central College Muir Central College in Allahabad in northern India was a college of higher education founded by William Muir in 1872. It had a separate existence to 1921, when as a result of the Allahabad University Act it was merged into Allahabad University. ...

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

, M.A. degree from the Universities in Allahabad and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and the D.Sc. degree from

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

. After teaching at the Kayasth Pathshala, Allahabad, and at the Muir Central College, Allahabad, for about two years, he proceeded to

for higher studies and research. While at Cambridge he became acquainted with mathematicians like E.W. Hobson and Andrew Forsyth. He also sat, though unsuccessfully, for the

Adams prize The Adams Prize is one of the most prestigious prizes awarded by the University of Cambridge. It is awarded each year by the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and St John's College to a UK-based mathematician for distinguis ...

competition. Later he moved to

where he was associated with

Arnold Sommerfeld Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld, (; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and mentored many students for the new era of theoretica ...

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many a ...

and

Georg Cantor Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor ( , ; – January 6, 1918) was a German mathematician. He played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance of ...

. In Göttingen, Prasad showed his paper titled ''On the constitution of matter and the analytical theories of heat'', the one he had submitted for the Adams prize competition, to

Felix Klein Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and group ...

, who appreciated it very much and arranged its publication in the Göttingen Abhandlungen. Ganesh Prasad spent altogether about five years in Europe.Sunil N. Shabde (2012) ''The Meteoric Life of a Mathematician, A tribute to Dr. N. g. Shabde'', page 307
Ganesh Prasad
via

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Mathematical career

Prasad returned to India from Europe in 1904 and was appointed professor of mathematics at the

. Within a year of his appointment at Allahabad, Prasad was sent to the Queen's College, Banaras and he continued there till 1914 when he was invited to head the mathematics department of

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

. Ganesh Prasad was the Ras Behari Ghosh Chair of Applied Mathematics of

(he was the first person to occupy this Chair (see p.314)) from 1914 to 1917 and Hardinge Professor of Mathematics in the same University from 1923 till his death on 9 March 1935. In between these two assignments he served

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

as professor of mathematics (1917–1923). While at Banaras, he helped found the Banaras Mathematical Society. Ganesh Prasad was elected President of the

Calcutta Mathematical Society The Calcutta Mathematical Society (CalMathSoc) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and education in India. The Society has its head office located at Kolkata, India. History C ...

and the Vice-President of the Indian Association for Advancement of Science, Calcutta in 1924 and continued in the same position till his death. He was a founder member of the National Institute of Sciences, India, which has now been rechristened as the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

. Ganesh Prasad authored 11 books including ''A Treatise on Spherical Harmonics and the Functions of Bessel and Lame'' and over fifty research papers in mathematics.

Other areas of work

Ganesh Prasad worked hard for the promotion of education in general in the rural areas of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He was instrumental in the introduction of compulsory primary education in villages in Uttar Pradesh. He donated from his private savings an amount of Rs. 22,000 for the education of girls in

. He also donated an amount of Rupees two hundred thousand for establishing prizes for the toppers at the M.A. and MSc examinations of the

Agra University Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University, formerly Agra University, is an Autonomous University located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. The university is named after B. R. Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Indian scholar, social reformer, and the architect of t ...

. He donated large amounts of money to the

and Banaras Universities also.

Works

* 1909
A Text-book of Differential Calculus
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* 1929: "On the differentiability of the integral function", ''Journal fur die reine und angewandte Mathematik'' 160: 100–110 * 1930: "On the nature of Θ in the mean-value theorem of the differential calculus",

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society The ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' is a quarterly mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society. Scope It publishes surveys on contemporary research topics, written at a level accessible to non-experts. I ...

36: 289–91 * 1933
Some Great Mathematicians of the Nineteenth Century
via Internet Archive

Early days

Mathematical career

Other areas of work

Works

See also

References

Further reading