C. P. Ramanujam: Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam (January 9, 1938 - October 27, 1974) Was An Indian

C. P.
Ramanujam
Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam (January 9, 1938 October 27, 1974) was an Indian
mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory and algebraic geometry. He got
elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1973. Like Srinivasa Ramanujan, his
namesake, Ramanujam also had a very short life.
As David Mumford put it, Ramanujam felt that the spirit of mathematics demanded of him not
merely routine developments but the right theorem on any given topic. "He wanted mathematics
to be beautiful and to be clear and simple. He was sometimes tormented by the difficulty of these
high standards, but in retrospect, it is clear to us how often he succeeded in adding to our
knowledge, results both new, beautiful and with a genuinely original stamp".
Childhood
Ramanujam was born on 9 January 1938 in Chennai, India, as the eldest of seven, to
Chakravarthi Srinivasa Padmanabhan. He finished his schooling and joined Loyola College in
Chennai in 1952. His specialization was to be mathematics and he set out to master it with vigour
and passion. His teacher and friend at this time was Father Racine, a missionary who had
obtained his doctorate under the supervision of Elie Cartan. With Father Racine's encouragement
and recommendation, Ramanujam applied to the graduate school at the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research in Bombay and was admitted to TIFR. His father had wanted him to join
the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata as he had passed the entrance exam meritoriously.
[edit] Early career

He set out for Mumbai at the age of eighteen to pursue his interest in mathematics. He and his
friend and schoolmate Raghavan Narasimhan, and S. Ramanan joined TIFR together in 1957. At
the Tata Institute there was a stream of first rate visiting mathematicians from all over the world.
It was a tradition for some graduate student to write up the notes of each course of lectures.
Accordingly, Ramanujam wrote up in his first year, the notes of Max Deuring's lectures on
Algebraic functions of one variable. It was a nontrivial effort and the notes were written clearly
and were well received. The analytical mind was much in evidence in this effort as he could
simplify and extend the notes within a short time period. "He could reduce difficult solutions to
be simple and elegant due to his deep knowledge of the subject matter" states Ramanan. "Max
Deuring's lectures gave him a taste for Algebraic Number Theory. He studied not only algebraic
geometry and analytical number theory of which he displayed a deep knowledge but he became
an expert in several other allied subjects as well".
His Ph.D guide, K. G. Ramanathan[1] states that Ramanujam displayed within two years of his
stay, versatility and depth in mathematics which was rare and somewhat frightening. However,
there were no concrete results commensurate with his mathematical breadth and depth and this
soon led to frustration. His wide foray into a variety of topics led to a dispersed knowledge but it
did not have 'big cash value' states Ramanathan. Ramanujam was frustrated and felt that he was
not worthy of staying on in the Institute. "He applied to different universities to teach
mathematics and fortunately for him he was not accepted anywhere" states Ramanathan. On his
guide's suggestion he began working on a problem relating to the work of the great German
number theorist C. L. Siegel. His insight and knowledge finally bore fruit and he solved the long
outstanding problem in a remarkably short time. In the course of proving the main result [2] to the
effect that every cubic form in 54 variables over any algebraic number field K had a non-trivial
zero over that field, he had also simplified the earlier method of Siegel. Although he felt that
with a little more effort, it could be reduced even to Davenport's 29, valid for the rational number
field, Ramanujam was not interested in pursuing it. He wanted to move on and tackle more
exciting problems. He took up Waring's problem in algebraic number fields and got interesting
results. In recognition of his work and his contribution to Number Theory, the Institute promoted
him as Associate Professor. He protested against this promotion as 'undeserved', and had to be
persuaded to accept the position.He proceeded to write his thesis in 1966 and took his Doctoral
examination in 1967. Dr. Siegel who was one of the examiners was highly impressed with the
young man's depth of knowledge and his great mathematical abilities.
Ramanujam was a scribe for Shafarevich's course of lectures in 1965 on minimal models and
birational transformation of two dimensional schemes. Professor Shafarevich [3] subsequently
wrote to say that Ramanujam not only corrected his mistakes but complemented the proofs of
many results. The same was the case with Mumford's lectures on abelian varieties which was
delivered at TIFR around 1967. Mumford wrote in the preface to his book that the notes
improved upon his work and that his current work on abelian varieties was a joint effort between
him and Ramanujam. A little known fact is that during this time he started teaching himself
German, Italian, Russian and French so that he could study mathematical works in their original
form. His personal library contained quite a few non-English mathematical works.
[edit] Personality and other interests

He could quickly enthuse others with his passion for maths and freely gave of his time and
knowledge to whoever sought him out. He did not just speak the language of mathematics. His
finer sensibilities led him to appreciate fine pieces of literary work, both fiction and nonfiction.He always loved reading and gifting books to others. He had a fine ear for music and it
was his second passion after mathematics. His favorite musician was Dr. M. D. Ramanathan, a
maverick concert musician who was not very popular because of his classicalism. Ramanujam
would invariably attend his concerts when he was in Chennai. During his early thirties he wanted
to learn music and bought himself a pipe and learned how to play it.He sought out people with
whom he could discuss music and loved their company. Like many a connoisseur of arts, he
loved good food. In his early years he took to smoking and later discovered the joy of smoking a
pipe. His other hobbies were chess, tennis, carrom and Go. He would however resume his
mathematical scribblings on any scrap of paper that was available whenever an idea came to him.
His mathematical mind was effortlessly clicking away even when he was relaxing and enjoying
himself. Ramanujam was extremely large hearted and generous to a fault and was known time
and again to empty out his wallet to anyone in the street who approached him.

C. P. Ramanujam: Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam (January 9, 1938 - October 27, 1974) Was An Indian

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

C. P. Ramanujam: Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam (January 9, 1938 - October 27, 1974) Was An Indian

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

C. P. Ramanujam: Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam (January 9, 1938 - October 27, 1974) Was An Indian

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

C. P.

[edit] Early career

[edit] Personality and other interests

You might also like