Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan FRS is a

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

of Indian origin, and is currently the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Physics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His work centers around understanding the organization of matter in space and time (that is, how it is shaped and how it flows, particularly at the scale observable by the unaided senses, in both physical and biological systems). Mahadevan is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow.

Education

Mahadevan graduated from the

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and has be ...

, and then received an M.S. from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1995.

Career and research

He started his independent career on the faculty at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1996. In 2000, he was elected the inaugural

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

Professor of Complex Physical Systems in the

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics 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, ...

, and a professorial fellow of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, the first Indian to be appointed professor to the Faculty of Mathematics there. He has been at Harvard since 2003, where he served as the chair/co-chair of Applied Mathematics from 2016-2021. Since 2017, together with A. Mahadevan, he has been the faculty dean of Mather House, one of twelve residential houses (with ~400 students) at Harvard College.

Awards

* 2016

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

* 201
Clay Senior Scholar
* 2009

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...

* 2006

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

* 2007

Ig Nobel Prize The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name of ...

for physics * 2007 Visiting Miller Professor, University of California, Berkeley * 2006

George Ledlie Prize The George Ledlie Prize is awarded by the "President and Fellows of Harvard College" for contributions to science. George Ledlie George Hees Ledlie was born at Palatine Bridge, New York and attended private schools and colleges to prepare for Ha ...

, Harvard University

References

External links

"Recent Publications", ''The Applied Math Lab''

"Google Scholar"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahadevan, L. Living people IIT Madras alumni Stanford University alumni University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences alumni Harvard University faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty MacArthur Fellows Radcliffe fellows Fellows of the Royal Society Santa Fe Institute people American academics of Indian descent Year of birth missing (living people)