Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by dyauspitr on Monday October 21, 2024 @08:29PM (#41909985)

Ramanujan’s story is very interesting but I would love more Indian mathematicians and scientists to become household names. Mathematicians like Harish Chandra, C. R. Rao, Manjul Bhargava, Narendra Karmakar etc. Physicists like C. V. Raman, Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha. Others like Har Gobind Khorana and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan too.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by sulam on Monday October 21, 2024 @08:53PM (#41910133)

Fwiw Chandra, Rao, and Bose are instantly recognizable to me. I’m not a mathematician or physicist and don’t know the other folks. That said I am very aware that Indians have made significant contributions to math, physics and I imagine other disciplines.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by ks2048 on Monday October 21, 2024 @09:32PM (#41910316)

You're right, some Indians don't have the recognition they deserve, but if it makes you feel better, few "western" mathematicians or scientists are household names either.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by esperent on Monday October 21, 2024 @09:41PM (#41910354)

However, pretty much all of the ones who are household names, are western.

Well, at least to western people. Are Indians more familiar with Indian scientists?

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by your_challenger on Monday October 21, 2024 @10:00PM (#41910442)

Amoung the people who are interested in science? Yes. But to the general public? No.

I don't think a non STEM guy would know Ramanujan or C V Raman.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by noisy_boy on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @08:59AM (#41913794)

C V Raman's name is known via school text books; though granted that few would remember it unless they carry on with STEM.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by Lutger on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @05:22AM (#41912592)

Household names (in the west) are maybe Aristotle, Galileo, Newton and Einstein. If you are lucky. For a lot of people it is just Einstein, that's it.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by xanderlewis on Monday October 21, 2024 @10:16PM (#41910533)

> Satyendra Nath Bose

I imagine most people won't recognise the name. But everyone's heard of a boson. So he's somewhat immortalised — more than most.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by rramadass on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @12:11AM (#41911113)

This is entirely the fault of the Indian Education System and Popular Media. The current generation knows almost nothing about these Indian Greats.

In order to rectify the status quo;

1) Everybody should get the monthly magazine Science Reporter published by National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (NIScPR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India. which gives a overview into Indian Science - https://sciencereporter.niscpr.res.in/

2) The two-volume The Mind of an Engineer by Purnendu Ghosh et al. published by Springer contains essays from many of our recent Scientists/Researchers/Engineers etc. - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-10-0119-2

3) Books on Indian Science/Scientists available on Amazon India, particularly the one by Jayant Narlikar (himself a great astrophysicist); The Scientific Edge: The Indian Scientist From Vedic To Modern Times. - https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-scientific-edge/

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by kadal on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @06:11AM (#41912829)

To this excellent list, I would humbly add Bhavana: https://bhavana.org.in/

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by rramadass on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @10:45AM (#41914826)

Great; I didn't know of this Mathematics magazine.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by rramadass on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @01:16PM (#41916426)

Two More;

a) Resonance : Journal of Science Education published by Indian Academy of Sciences - https://www.ias.ac.in/Journals/Resonance_Journal_of_Science_...

b) Science India magazine published by Vijnana Bharati- https://scienceindiamag.in/

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by xanderlewis on Monday October 21, 2024 @10:17PM (#41910542)

I've noticed India seems to be full of ring theorists/algebraic geometers. I wonder if that's actually true and, if so, why.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by nasalspirant on Monday October 21, 2024 @11:39PM (#41910978)

Part of the answer is that research funding in India is predominantly from the public sector, and investments in pure science research have been low for a long time (not that applied sciences are doing much better). Thus many researchers lack the resources for experimental science whereas theoretical study is more accessible.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by xanderlewis on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @04:04PM (#41918141)

Ah. I was only comparing with other 'pure' disciplines like analysis and topology/geometry, but I guess these are still more strongly connected to applied things.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by profsummergig on Monday October 21, 2024 @09:07PM (#41910203)

When I first encountered the Mahalanobis distance, I thought it sounded strangely Indian. Turned out it was!

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by billfruit on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @12:44AM (#41911266)

Physicists like Subrahmanyam Chandrashekhar and George Sudarshan. Also Mahalanobis for statistics.

And Mani Chandy for computer science.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by andrewflnr on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @12:52AM (#41911298)

Chandras(h?)ekhar is already there, at least if you're the kind of nerd who knows about physics at all. Probably even more so than Ramanujan, but that could just be my science bias as a kid.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by chompychop on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @03:24AM (#41911996)

Manjul Bhargava is not Indian.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by dyauspitr on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @09:39AM (#41914146)

You’re right, I can’t edit my comment anymore though.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by the-mitr on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @04:26AM (#41912303)

Universities press in India had bought out a series of books by G Venkataraman called Vignettes in Physics it also had books on Saha, Bhabha, Bose, Chandra and Raman. https://universitiespress.com/books?id=0&sid=161

National Book Trust also has several books on Indian scientists.

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Re:Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan by seanhunter on Tuesday October 22, 2024 @10:26AM (#41914649)

What about Madhava of Sangamagrama[1], who (among other things) described various Taylor expansions for trigonometric functions (including an estimate of the error term) in the 14th century? (ie 300 years before James Gregory discovered the method for the Taylor expansion in the West).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhava_of_Sangamagrama

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