Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians 2020

• 12 Dec 2020

Why in News

The Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians 2020 has been awarded to Dr. Carolina Araujo, Mathematician from the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

• She received the Prize for her outstanding work in algebraic geometry. Her work area focuses on birational geometry, which aims to classify and describe the structure of algebraic varieties.

Key Points

• The Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from developing countries has been awarded annually since 2005.
• It was originally instituted by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund, and the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
  
  • The participation of the Abel Fund ended in 2012.
  • ICTP: Founded in 1964 by the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, it seeks to accomplish its mandate by providing scientists from developing countries with the continuing education and skills that they need to enjoy long and productive careers.
  • IMU: It is an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organization, with the purpose of promoting international cooperation in mathematics.
    
    • It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC).
      
      • The ISC was created in 2018 and is an international non-governmental organization bringing together the natural and social sciences and the largest global science organization of its type.
      • It has its office in Paris, France.
    • India is a member country.
    • IMU Secretariat is located in Berlin, Germany.
• The Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India (DST) has agreed to fund the Prize, starting with the 2014 Prize.
  
  • It has been 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.
  • In India, 22^nd December is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in the memory of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
• It is awarded to a researcher from a developing country who is less than 45 years of age on 31^st December of the year of the award, and who has conducted outstanding research in a developing country.
  
  • Researchers working in any branch of the mathematical sciences are eligible.
  • The Prize carries a USD 15,000 cash award.

Source: PIB