Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao is the one of the brightest stars in the Indian sky of Statistics and Mathematics. An exceptional academician, he is a dedicated soul in the development of Statistics and his works earned him the honor of Padma Bhusan. C. R. Rao was born on 10th September, 1920 at Hadagali in Karnataka. His family moved to Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. He received his master’s degree in mathematics from Mrs. A. V. N College [...]
Bhaskara II was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, the chief mathematical center of ancient India. It goes to the credit of Varahamihira and Brahmagupta, the leading mathematicians who worked there and built up this school of mathematical astronomy. He wrote six books and the seventh book, which is attributed to him, is considered to be a forgery. The subjects of his six works are arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, geometry, and astronomy. The [...]
Bhaskara I was an Indian mathematician of the 7th century, who probably lived between c.600- c.680. He was most likely the first to use a circle for the zero in the Hindu-Arabic decimal system, and while commenting on Aryabhata’s work, he evaluated an extraordinary rational approximation of the sine function. There is very little information about Bhaskara’s life. He is said to be born near Saurashtra in Gujarat and died in Ashmaka. He was educated [...]
Aryabhatta is a renowned mathematician and astronomer of ancient India. He was born in 476 CE in Bihar. He studied at the University of Nalanda. One of his major works was Aryabhatiya written in 499 AD. The book dealt with many topics like astronomy, spherical trigonometry, arithmetic, algebra and plane trigonometry. He jotted his inventions in mathematics and astronomy in verse form. The book was translated into Latin in the 13th century. Through the translated [...]
Aryabhata II was an mathematician and astronomer of India, and wrote the well-known book the Mahasiddhanta. He is believed to be born in India during c.920 and died at c.1000. These dates are approximately suggested by the modern historians, however there are historians like G.R.Kaye believed that Aryabhata II lived before al-Biruni, whereas Datta in 1926 proved that these dates were too early. Though Pingree considers that Aryabhatta’s main publications was published between 950 and [...]
One of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 jointly with the nuclear astrophysicist W.A. Fowler. Born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore, his father was an officer in the Indian Audits and Accounts Department while the famous scientists Sir C.V. Raman was his uncle. He had his education at home till the age of 12 and started his school education in 1922 at [...]
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) is an Indian mathematician who is known for his extraordinary work in the field of Mathematics. His research work was ahead of his time, despite receiving no formal training in maths. In the beginning years, he developed his theories in isolation. He contributed to number of theories, mathematical analysis, continued fractions, infinite series and even to solutions of problems that were considered unsolvable. His genius was recognised during his school days as [...]
Noted scientist and the first Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar was born on February 21, 1894 in Shahpur, in present-day Pakistan. His father passed away when he was only eight months old. Thereafter his maternal grandfather took him under his care. Under the tutelage of his grandfather, who was an engineer by profession, young Shanti Swaroop developed a liking for science, engineering and poetry. After completing his [...]
Satyendra Nath Bose, also known as S.N Bose, is a contemporary of Einstein, is best known for his work on quantum physics in 1920. The physicist specialized in mathematical physics which was then in its infancy. He worked with Einstein and their work lead to the concept of Bose-Einstein statistics in particle physics and later a theory -the Bose Einstein condensate- about a fifth state of matter( a super fluid). His work and theory was [...]
One of the well-known reformists and freedom fighter of India, Mahadev Govind Ranade was born in 1842 at Biphad in Nasik, Maharashtra. Known to be the mentor and political guru of famous freedom fighters Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak,he himself was deeply involved in the freedom struggle of India. Ranade was a social reformer who also believed in ancient customs. He said that the social reforms should be introduced in such a way [...]
