Vasudevan Srinivas (born 6 June 1958) is an Indian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

working in

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which uses abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, to solve geometry, geometrical problems. Classically, it studies zero of a function, zeros of multivariate polynomials; th ...

. He is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Mathematics Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. Srinivas is an elected Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences, American Mathematical Society, Indian National Science Academy, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. Srinivas received the BSc degree from Bangalore University and did his MS (1978) and PhD (1982) degrees at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Spencer Bloch was his research supervisor. He began his academic career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,

in 1983.

Career

Mathematical contributions

Srinivas works in the field of

; his particular subfields of interest include the areas of algebraic cycles, K-theory, commutative algebra and positive characteristic methods. He is well-known for the Bloch-Srinivas method of diagonal decomposition to study algebraic cycles. He has also made outstanding contributions to the study of algebraic cycles on singular varieties, an area of which he is essentially an originator. Among some of his other contributions are the resolution of the Zariski problem for linear systems (in collaboration with Steven Dale Cutkosky), the characterization of the projecive space among homogeneous spaces (in collaboration with Kapil Paranjape) and the characterization of rational singularities (in collaboration with Vikram Mehta). Srinivas's book on "Algebraic K-theory" which grew out of his lectures on the topic at TIFR in 1986-87 is now a standard reference for the subject for beginning researchers in the area.

Service

Srinivas has played an important role in the promotion of mathematics through various scientific bodies, in both advisory and administrative capacities. He served on the International Mathematical Union Executive Committee from 2011 to 2018. He serves on the editorial boards of several mathematics journals. He is presently the Chairman of the National Board for Higher Mathematics, India.

Awards and distinctions

He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2003, the highest science award in

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 ...

, in the mathematical sciences category. In 2010, he was an invited speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

held at Hyderabad.

Other awards/honours

* Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists, 1987 * B.M. Birla Science Prize in Mathematics for the year 1995 * Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi * TWAS Prize (2008) * Fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

, 2012List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-07-26. * Humboldt Research Award, 2013 * DFG Mercator Fellowship 2020-2024

References

1958 births Living people 20th-century Indian mathematicians Bangalore University alumni University of Chicago alumni Academic staff of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Fellows of the American Mathematical Society TWAS laureates Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Mathematical Science {{India-scientist-stub