Indian-born Mathematician Wins Norwegian Abel Prize
Indian-born Srinivasa S R Varadhan was Thursday named winner of the Norwegian Abel Prize,
known as the "Nobel Prize for mathematics".
His contribution :
Varadhan’s theory of large deviations provides a unifying and efficient method for clarifying a rich variety of phenomena arising in complex stochastic systems, in fields as diverse as quantum field theory, statistical physics, population dynamics, econometrics and finance, and traffic engineering. It has also greatly expanded our ability to use computers to simulate and analyze the occurrence of rare events. Over the last four decades, the theory of large deviations has become a cornerstone of modern probability, both pure and applied.
“Varadhan’s work has great conceptual strength and ageless beauty. His ideas have been hugely influential and will continue to stimulate further research for a long time”, to quote the Abel Committee.
Award :
He is expected to receive the Abel Prize from His Majesty, King Harald V of Norway, in Oslo on May 22nd. The honour is accompanied by a prize of $850,000.
This is the second time in three years that an NYU mathematician has been the recipient of the Abel Prize: in 2005, Professor Peter Lax of the Courant Institute was awarded the Abel.
About Prof Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan :
Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan is currently Professor of Mathematics and Frank J. Gould Professor of Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.
Prof. Varadhan - a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society and the Third World Academy of Sciences - has been the recipient of many awards and honours, including the Birkhoff Prize (1994), the Margaret and Herman Sokol Award of NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science (1995), and the American Mathematical Society's Leroy Steele Prize (1996), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received his B.Sc. Honours degree and M.A. from Madras University, and his Ph.D. from the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta.
Biography via [ The Abel Prize ]