A BEAUTIFUL MIND

Neena Gupta conferred Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians

Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, was on 22nd February 2022 conferred the Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians. She received the award for the year 2021 for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. The prize is awarded annually to a researcher from a developing country funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in association with the ICTP (International Centre for Theoretical Physics) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU).

The Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians is an annual award that goes to a researcher from a developing country. The award is given to young mathematicians less than 45 years of age who have conducted outstanding research in a developing country. It is supported by DST in the memory of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a genius in pure mathematics who was essentially self-taught and made spectacular contributions to elliptic functions, continued fractions, infinite series, and analytical theory of numbers.

Professor Gupta’s solution for solving the Zariski cancellation problem, a fundamental problem in Algebraic Geometry, earned her the 2014 Young Scientists Award of the Indian National Science Academy (NSA). The NSA described her solution as ‘one of the best works in algebraic geometry in recent years done anywhere’. The problem was posed by one of the most eminent founders of modern Algebraic Geometry, Oscar Zariski, in 1949. In an interview with an American university, Gupta describes the problem as —The cancellation problem asks that if you have cylinders over two geometric structures, and that have similar forms, can one conclude that the original base structures have similar forms?

Gupta graduated with honours in mathematics from Bethune College in 2006. She did her post graduation in mathematics from the Indian Statistical Institute in 2008 and subsequently, her PhD degree in 2011 with commutative algebra as her specialization. She received the Indian National Science Academy Young Scientist award in 2014 for the solution she proposed to the Zariski Cancellation Problem in positive characteristic and has also won Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award (2019) in the category of mathematical sciences, the highest honour in India in the field of science and technology.

Professor Gupta has shown her flair which will motivate millions of girls towards mathematics. It’s a matter of great pride for India to have such a wonderful award.