When most university teachers look for a relaxed lifestyle after retirement, here is a teacher who is actively championing the cause of Mathematics post in his evening years.
Tamraparni Venkatesh, who retired as a professor from the department of Mathematics in Rani Channamma University has set up a charitable institute to popularise Mathematics and to train young people in advanced trends in that field.
The Mathematical Science Institute in Belagavi that he set up along with his friends in 2002, is completing 20 years in organising seminars and workshops, celebrating events related to eminent Mathematicians and holding academic sessions and graduate research programmes for doctoral and post doctoral fellows. “MSIB has organised several workshops in schools to remove the fear of mathematics by showing that it can be fun and easy, if they take an interest,’’ said Prof. Venkatesh.
This year’s graduate research programme theme is Geometry, topology and combinatorics. MSIB has lined up several programmes towards this.
Harish Sheshadri of IISc inaugurated an immersed learning programme of 16 weeks. Apart from Geometry, topology and combinatorics, the programme covers theoretical physics and computer science concepts. As many as five students pursuing PhD will be given a financial incentive to attend. At the end of the course, they will be given a certificate that will add value to their bio data.
Recently, four researchers from IISc flew down to Belagavi to deliver online lectures in advanced fields in mathematics to graduate and post graduate students.
“MSIB’s alumni have reached out to Ken Ono a mathematician of Japanese origin now in Virginia university, USA. He is a number theorist who has built his work on Srinivasan Ramanujan’s theory of numbers. Prof Ono, who is a visiting professor at IIT Gauhati, has agreed to be its Honorary professor at MSIB . He has assured us that he will visit Belagavi and address students,’’ said Prof Venkatesh.
Prof Venkatesh and his friends wanted to start an academic institute on the model of the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj (Allahabad) and the Chennai Mathematical institute.
The opportunity presented itself during his USA visit. He taught mathematics at the Corning community college in New York as a Fullbright fellow under the Scholar in Residence programme. “A visit to Paulo Alto inspired me to start the institute in my home in Belagavi,’’ he says.
One day, I visited a tiny office in the corner of a shopping mall in Paulo Alto. I learnt that the mall owner was a lover of science and Mathematics. He had started a centre with free access to a library and a reading room for students. I spent half a day at the centre and decided to set up a charitable institute for mathematics. I began with meagre resources, but pledged to set aside ten percent of my annual earnings towards this. Now, we have alumni in various prestigious across the world,’’ he said.
“MSIB also organises the lecture series on History of mathematics. Veteran mathematicians like S.G. Dani of Mumbai have delivered the lectures. During the lockdown, we organised online lectures,’’ said Deputy Director, J. Venkat Ramana Raju.
