Govindan Rangarajan, (born 18 September 1963) is an Indian mathematician, academician, and a professor. He is currently serving as the director of the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

(IISc) at

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and as a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the same.

Education and career

Rangarajan obtained his integrated Master of Science degree with honours from

BITS Pilani The Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a private deemed university in Pilani, Rajasthan, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. BITS Pilani was one of the first ...

, in 1985, and his PhD degree from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

, in 1990. He was a staff scientist in the

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a federally funded research and development center in the hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established in 1931 by the University of California (UC), the laboratory is spo ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, before joining the Indian Institute of Science as an assistant professor in 1992. Rangarajan's research areas include

nonlinear dynamics In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathem ...

chaos Chaos or CHAOS may refer to: Science, technology, and astronomy * '' Chaos: Making a New Science'', a 1987 book by James Gleick * Chaos (company), a Bulgarian rendering and simulation software company * ''Chaos'' (genus), a genus of amoebae * ...

time series analysis In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. ...

, and

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of techniques in computer science, data analysis, mathematical modeling and Computer simulation, computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer sci ...

. His work is applied in areas such as neuroscience, geophysics and accelerator physics. As a co-principal investigator of the Indo-French Cyber University Project, he helped establish the first inter-continental satellite-based courses. These courses were taught live to Indian and French students in various subject areas. He also headed the National Mathematics Initiative, which ran instructional schools and workshops in cutting-edge areas at the interface between mathematics and other fields. He was instrumental in setting up and running the interdisciplinary PhD programme in mathematical sciences. He also headed the Indo-US Virtual Institute for Mathematics and Statistical Sciences, which was jointly set up by the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, India. Rangarajan is currently the director of the Indo-French Centre for Applied Mathematics (IFCAM), the first Unités Mixtes Internationales of

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

in India. This is a joint venture between the Department of Science and Technology, India, and a consortium of French institutions. IFCAM supports joint research projects between India and France in the broad area of applied mathematics. Rangarajan has also served as the chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Convener, Digital Information Services Centre from 2002 to 2008. He was the chairman of the International Relations Cell (now called th
Office of International Relations
from 2008 to 2014. Most recently, he was chaired th
Division of Interdisciplinary Research
comprising 10 departments and centres, from 2014 to 2020. He also headed IISc's fundraising and alumni outreach efforts in his role as Chairman of th
Office of Development and Alumni Affairs
from 2015 to 2020.

Awards and recognition

Rangarajan was awarded the Homi Bhabha Fellowship in 2001. He was also awarded the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques (Knight of the Order of Academic Palms) by the

Government of France The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

in 2006. He has been elected a Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

and the

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, also known as NASI, was established in 1930 and is the oldest science academy of India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows * Suddhasatwa Bas ...

. Rangarajan is an honorary professor of the

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research The Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) is a multidisciplinary research institute located at Jakkur, Bangalore, India. JNCASR was established by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of Indi ...

, Bangalore, India. He has been awarded the J.C. Bose National Fellowship for the 2011-2021 decade. He is also a recipient of the BITS Distinguished Alumnus Award.

References

External links

Homepage of Govindan Rangarajan

Education and career

Awards and recognition

References

External links

See also