Dec
06
Kumar Murty (University of Toronto) Saturday, December 10, 2011, 6:00 pm Ryerson University, Atrium of the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre The TAU of Ramanujan Ramanujan's story is as amazing as his mathematics. Being largely self-taught, he emerged from extreme poverty to become one of the 20th century's most influential mathematicians. His is a phenomenal "rags to mathematical riches" story. In this talk, we look at one aspect of Ramanujan's life and legacy and use it as a backdrop to explore his Tau: the essence of his creativity. Kumar Murty got his B.Sc from Carleton University and Ph.D. from Harvard University. After a year each at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), he joined Concordia University as an NSERC University Research Fellow. In 1987, he moved to the University of Toronto where he has been ever since. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Mathematics. Kumar's field of research is number theory, algebraic geometry and their applications to information technology. For many years, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Ramanujan Mathematical Society and an editor of Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Fields Institute. This year, he was elected a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India). Other honours include a Steacie Fellowship, the Coxeter-James Prize, the Balaguer Prize (joint with his brother Ram) and an "Inventor of the Year" award of the University of Toronto.