Abstract
The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize, launched in 2005, is an annual prize of US $10,000 given to a mathematician not exceeding the age of 32 for outstanding contributions in areas influenced by Ramanujan. The prize is now one of the most prestigious and coveted international awards. This is the speech given by author in 2005 as Chair of the Prize Committee, when the First SASTRA Ramanujan Prizes were awarded, describing why such a prize was conceived and how it will play a major role in the encouragement of young mathematicians. The work and accomplishments of the winners are also described.
This article is a slightly expanded version of a talk given at the award ceremony at SASTRA University, Kumbakonam, on December 20, 2005. An abridged version of this article appeared in FOCUS, the newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America, in May 2006. On 20 December 2005, the First SASTRA Ramanujan Prizes were awarded at Kumbakonam, India, Ramanujan’s home town, to Professors Manjul Bhargava (Princeton) and Kannan Soundararajan (Michigan). This article describes the goals of the prize, the events leading up to and including the prize ceremony, and the accomplishments of the winners.
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Addendum, September 2012
Since its launch in 2005, the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize has been given every year around December 22 (Ramanujan’s birthday) at Kumbakonam (Ramanujan’s hometown) at an international conference at SASTRA University. In view of the fact that 2012 is the 125-th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, this year alone the prize is being given outside of Kumbakonam in New Delhi (India’s capital) on December 22 at an international conference on the legacy of Ramanujan. The winners since 2005 are:
2005: Manjul Bhargava (Princeton) and Kannan Soundararajan (Michigan)
2006: Terence Tao (University of California, Los Angeles)
2007: Ben Green (Cambridge University)
2008: Akshay Venkatesh (Stanford University)
2009: Kathrin Bringmann (University of Cologne)
2010: Wei Zhang (Harvard University)
2011: Roman Holowinsky (Ohio State University)
2012: Zhiwei Yun (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University)
The reputation of any prize is determined by the caliber of the winners. Each of the winners is a world leader in his or her field of study, and so this prize has become one of the most prestigious and coveted awards. I have had the privilege of being the (non-voting) Chair of the Prize Committee since 2005. I am indebted to several leading mathematicians for supporting the prize either by sending in outstanding nominations or by serving on the prize committee.
Addendum, September 2020
For a description of the work of the SASTRA Prize Winners from 2006 to 2019, see Chap. 30.
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Alladi, K. (2021). The First SASTRA Ramanujan Prizes. In: Ramanujan's Place in the World of Mathematics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6241-9_28
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