Nationality Indian Fields Mathematics Name Veeravalli Varadarajan | Notable awards Onsager Medal Institutions UCLA Doctoral advisor C. R. Rao | |
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Known for Trombi–Varadarajan theorem Alma mater Presidency College, Chennai Institution University of California, Los Angeles Books Geometry of quantum theory, Lie groups - Lie algebras, Euler through time, Harmonic Analysis of Spherical, An Introduction to Harmo | ||
Veeravalli S. Varadarajan (born May 1937) is an Indian mathematician at UCLA who has worked in many areas of mathematics, including Lie groups and their representations, quantum mechanics, differential equations, and supersymmetry.
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Biography
Varadarajan received his undergraduate degree in 1957 from Presidency College, Madras and his doctorate in 1960 from the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta, under the supervision of C. R. Rao. He was one of the "famous four" (the others were R. Ranga Rao, K. R. Parthasarathy, and S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan ) in ISI during 1956-1963. After short periods at the Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Washington, Seattle he joined the Department of Mathematics at UCLA in 1965.
Contributions
Varadarajan's early work, including his doctoral thesis, was in the area of probability theory. He then moved into representation theory where he has done some of his best known work. In the 1980s, he wrote a series of papers with Donald Babbitt on the theory of differential equations with irregular singularities. His latest work has been in supersymmetry.
He introduced Kostant–Parthasarathy–Ranga Rao–Varadarajan determinants along with Bertram Kostant, K. R. Parthasarathy and R. Ranga Rao in 1967, the Trombi–Varadarajan theorem in 1972 and the Enright–Varadarajan modules in 1975.
Recognition
He was awarded the Onsager Medal in 1998 for his work. He was recognized along with 23 Indian and Indian American members "who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics" by the Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program in November 1, 2012.