Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics
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Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (RIASM) is the
Department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
of
University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...
. This name was adopted in 1967.


History

The University of Madras was incorporated in 1857 and the Department of Mathematics was an integral part of the university from its beginning. The department developed from its early years to become a centre of research in mathematics with the appointment of
R. Vaidyanathaswamy Ramaswamy S. Vaidyanathaswamy (1894–1960) was an Indian mathematician who wrote the first textbook of point-set topology in India. Life He was born in India on 24 October 1894. Vaidyanathaswamy studied Mathematics at the University of Edinbu ...
as a Reader in Mathematics in 1927. The seeds of the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics were sown when the "Ramanujan Institute of Mathematics" was established by
Alagappa Chettiar Sir Alagappa Chettiar (6 April 1909 – 5 April 1957) was an Indian businessman and philanthropist. He received the Padma Bhushan award (the third highest civilian award in India) in 1956. Early life Chettiar was born in Kottaiyur in the ...
on 26 January 1950 as a memorial to the mathematician
Srinivasa Ramanujan Srinivasa Ramanujan (; born Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar, ; 22 December 188726 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician. Though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis ...
. It was governed by the Asoka Charitable Trust,
Karaikudi Karaikudi is a Greater municipality in Sivaganga district, Sivagangai district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 21st largest urban agglomeration of Tamil Nadu based on 2011 census data. It is part of t ...
, and was located at Krishna Vilas,
Vepery Vepery is a suburb in the north of Chennai, India. Abutting the transportation hub of Park Town, the neighbourhood covers a rectangular area north of the Poonamallee High Road. History Vepery is among those oldest neighbourhoods developed duri ...
,
Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
. The Ramanujan Institute of Mathematics was inaugurated by A. Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar,
Vice Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is ...
of University of Madras, with T. Vijayaraghavan, a student of
G.H. Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of pop ...
, as Director of the Institute. The institute faced a financial crisis when, in 1956, Asoka Charitable Trust expressed its inability to run the institute. However, due to the request from
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; ) (19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian-American theoretical physicist who spent his professional life in the United States. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for "... ...
Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
took an initiative in such a way the management of the institute came to be vested with the University of Madras and the institute was taken over by the university in May 1957. The Asoka charitable Trust Started Ramanujan Institute of Mathematics in January, 1950 and as the Institute found itself in financial difficulties, Government of India agreed in 1953-54 to meet the expenses of a chair for Mathematics at the Institute Object to the condition that the Trust Would continue to spend the amount Previously spent by it for the activity of the Institute. Grants of 18,000 for each year were given the Institute for the years 1953-54 and 1994-55, but the audited accounts of the Institute revealed that the st was not fulfilling the condition of the Government grant and had instead built up a Reserve Fund. No Governmeat grant was therefore paid in 1965-56 Towards the close of 1956, the Trust decided to close down the Institute, but as a result of discussions with the Government of India, Initiated by the founder of the Trust and the Vice-Chancellor of the Madras University, and later earned on by the Vice-Chancellor, it has been agreed that in view of the difficulty of manning an Institute with the limited number of available Professors of the requisite quality, the activities of the Institute may be continued in the Department of Mathematics in the University of Madras It has been decided to create a Ramanujam Professorship of Mathematics on a scale of Rs 1,000—1,500 with selection grade up to Rs 1,700 and attach the existing permanent research staff of the Institute to the said Professor The Government of India will give the necessary grants to the University to enable them to carry out this arrangement until such time as the University Grants Commission sanctions an appropriate grant. During the short period of existence, the institute had a string of prominent mathematicians as visitors, including S.S. Pillai, noted number theorist, V. Ganapathy Iyer, analyst and
Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...
. After the demise of T. Vijayaraghavan in 1955, C.T. Rajagopal took over as the Director of the Institute. From 1957 to 1966, the Department of Mathematics and the Ramanujan Institute of Mathematics functioned as independent bodies under the University of Madras. In 1967 the
University Grants Commission (India) University Grants Commission (UGC) is a statutory body set up by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance ...
proposed to make the Department of Mathematics of the University of Madras into one of its Centres of Advanced Study. In the same year these two institutions were amalgamated to form a UGC Centre for Advanced Study in Mathematics and named the center as the "Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics" (RIASM). C.T. Rajagopal was appointed the first Director of the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, and when he retired in 1969, the reins were taken over by T.S. Bhanumurthy.


Ramanujan Museum

Utilising a grant of Rs. 1 lakh received as UGC Special Assistance for Equipment and with the help of the Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre,
Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...
a Mathematical Laboratory was established in the institute. About 65 mathematical models were acquired under the scheme. These models were exhibited * for the participants of several Refresher Courses conducted through the Academic Staff College of the University of Madras, * at the Silver Jubiliee conference of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India held at Madras during 10–13 January 1991, * in the Science Exhibition held at National Institute of Technology,
Tiruchirapalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...
during 10–14 July 1991, and * are being lent to be exhibited in several schools in and around
Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
. Later the institute received an amount of Rs. 2 lakh from the
National Board for Higher Mathematics The National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM), founded in 1983 by the Indian Government, is a board in India intended to foster the development of higher mathematics, help in the establishment and development of mathematics centres, and give f ...
, Rs. 1 lakh from ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' newspaper and Rs. 9 lakh from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Government of India, and a matching grant of Rs. 9 lakh from the University of Madras. The amount was used to establish the Ramanujan Museum in the premises of the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics. A grant of rupees one crore was later sanctioned by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, towards the establishment of Ramanujan Museum and Research Centre.


Courses offered

*
M.Sc. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
(Mathematics) full-time *
MPhil The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...
(Mathematics) full-time * PhD (Mathematics) full-time and part-time


Current research areas

*
Algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...
*
Functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (e.g. Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics)#Defini ...
*
Harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the representation of Function (mathematics), functions or signals as the Superposition principle, superposition of basic waves, and the study of and generalization of the notions of Fo ...
*
Potential theory In mathematics and mathematical physics, potential theory is the study of harmonic functions. The term "potential theory" was coined in 19th-century physics when it was realized that two fundamental forces of nature known at the time, namely gravi ...
*
Differential equations In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...
*
Mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of the living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development a ...
*
Stochastic process In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables. Stochastic processes are widely used as mathematical models of systems and phenomena that appea ...
es *
Graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conne ...


External links


Official website


References

{{authority control University of Madras Mathematics education in India Research institutes in Chennai Mathematical institutes 1927 establishments in India Educational institutions established in 1927