Finnish, Russia-born mathematicians to jointly receive 2016 Ramanujan Prize

Finnish mathematician Kaisa Matomaki and Russia-born Canada-based analytic number theorist Maksym Radziwill will be jointly honoured with the 2016 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for their contributions to the field of number theory, the prize committee members said on Friday.

The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize was established in 2005 and is awarded annually for outstanding contributions by young mathematicians to areas influenced by Indian mathematical genius Srinavasa Ramanujan.

Kaisa Matomaki (University of Turku, Finland) and Maksym Radziwill (McGill University, Canada and Rutgers University, the US) will be jointly awarded the 2016 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for their "deep and far reaching" contributions to several important problems in diverse areas of number theory and especially for their "spectacular collaboration" which is revolutionising the subject, said the statement.

It recognises their individual advancement to the field as well as their collaborations.

The age limit for the prize has been set at 32 because Ramanujan achieved so much in his brief life of 32 years, said the statement quoting Indian-origin mathematician and Ramanujan expert Krishnaswami Alladi of the University of Florida, a prize committee member.

"The prize recognizes that in making significant improvements over the works of earlier stalwarts on long standing problems, they have introduced a number of innovative techniques," Alladi said.

The prize will be awarded during December 21-22, at the International Conference on Number Theory at SASTRA (Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy) University in Kumbakonam (Ramanujan's hometown).

The winners will share the $10,000 prize this year.

The 2016 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize Committee consists of Alladi- Chair (University of Florida), Henri Darmon (McGill University), Winfried Kohnen (University of Heidelberg), Hugh Montgomery (University of Michigan), Peter Sarnak (Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Michael Schlosser (University of Vienna), and Cameron Stewart (University of Waterloo).

--IANS

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