Prof Ingrid Daubechies

Woman Mathematician

to Provide Leadership

Reports Vinod Varshney

First time a woman mathematician Prof. Ingrid Daubechies would provide leadership to international cooperation in mathematics. She has been elected the president of the International Mathematical Union, an august body of mathematicians established nine decades ago.

The IMU elected Tuesday its Executive Committee also for the term 2011–14. It has one Indian also Vasudevan Srinivas.

Prof. Daubechies’ election is doubly encouraging as the first International Conference of Women Mathematicians was inaugurated in Hyderabad on 17 August. Besides, she is the first woman Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, New Jersey. She is also the first woman to receive the National Academy of Sciences Medal in Mathematics (2000).

Prof. Daubechies is a mathematician and a physicist and works in the Department of Mathematics and in the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton University. Born in Belgium in 1954, she is now settled in the US (1987 onwards) after her marriage.


In her election speech, Prof. Daubechies expressed happiness that pure and applied mathematicians were interacting more with each other. “I am very interested in how emerging countries develop mathematics…There is enormous potential in young people...In a sense, mathematics is easier for an emerging country to develop than physics or chemistry because you do not need to have a big layout in materials and labs and so on and lot more money. In mathematics, once you build a nucleus who can work together, then the sky is the limit!”


Next Congress would be in Korea


The next International Congress of Mathematicians will be hosted by Korea. The decision was taken by voting at the 16th General Assembly meeting held in Bangalore. Hyungju Park, a member of the Korean delegation in his presentation at the General Assembly told, ‘In IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad), Korea is now steadily ranking third or fourth... mathematics is becoming a very popular subject in Korea. When kids enter college, they take a college entrance exam and they choose their majors. The second most popular area in major universities right now is mathematics. This is something we didn’t expect before. So definitely math is becoming a very popular subject and we think that our ICM efforts also contributed to that. We are telling young students that math is a fascinating subject and there are things that are happening.’


“The relation between the math community and industry is also becoming very strong. Many young students are getting interested in mathematics especially due to TV coverage. Seventy percent of IMO medalists in Korea are choosing math as their college majors – most of them will go on to get Ph Ds in mathematics.”

India Gave Zero, Now Time to Have a Hero

India Gave Zero,
Now Time to

Have a Hero

Reports Vinod Varshney

India gave the concept of Zero in mathematics, but modern India lacks a Hero in mathematics. Things are bound to change. May be several initiatives start this year itself.

First time this year in modern India top mathematicians from all over the world will assemble in thousands. This will be a great event, according to many, symbolic of recognition of India by the world as a great mathematical power. But, according to many the claim is only symptomatic of claim-happy Indians.

Indians tom-tom about its great mathematicians namely Aryabhatt (476-550), Brahmgupta (598-668), Madhav (14th century) and Srinivas Ramanujam (20th century), but the current educational and research system in the country is patently incapable of producing even one world class mathematician in India.

Not a single Indian, working in India or abroad, so far has been able to win Fields Medal, equivalent to Nobel Prize. Though there is great expectation that during the International Congress of Mathematicians to be held in Hyderabad late August this year, at least one Indian would join the rank of Fields Medalists.

Will this Indian be the one working in India? No. Understanding among mathematical community is that one of the three well-known mathematical researchers currently in the US may be adorned with this most prestigious award.

Why India does not produce good mathematicians? Research in mathematic does not require costly equipments like $ 10 billion Large Hadron Collider. Mathematical research needs a culture of marathon hard work and recognition of excellence rather than leg-pulling. Prithivraj Chavan, the Minister of Science & Technology claims he is well aware of the problem and dropped a hint Wednesday that the Government may announce an International Center for Mathematical Research.

Chavan told media persons that not having enough number of good mathematicians was a great worry for us, but since there had not been great career opportunity for mathematicians and there had been peer pressure and parental pressure, the brightest students never took mathematics as an area of study. Confident is Prithivraj Chavan, that the INSPIRE, a Department of Science & Technology (DST) program would change all that. As a drop in the ocean the DST has planned 250 INSPIRE Scholarships for M.Sc. and 15 Fellowships for doctoral research in Mathematics.

There more disturbing things. India is dubbed an IT Super Power, but if one counts the number of Computer Science Phds it produces, it is pitiable 30-40 a year where as China produces 3000-4000. So what surprise if China can steal your defence data from government files. Dr M S Raghunathan , a renowned mathematician of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research says the number of Phds in Mathematics is definitely more but their quality is questionable.

How can India in such a situation produce world class mathematicians?