National Mathematics Day

December 22nd

• In India, the day 'December 22' has been declared as the National Mathematics Day

Dr. Manmohan Singh lighting the lamp to inaugurate the 125th Birth Anniversary celebrations of noted

mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan

• The declaration was made by Prime Minister of India, during the inaugural ceremony of the celebrations to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan held at the Madras University Centenary Auditorium on 26 February 2012.

• Dr Manmohan Singh also announced that the year 2012 CE would be celebrated as the National Mathematics Year.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh releasing the postal stamp on noted mathematician Shri Srinivas Ramanujan at his 125th Birth

Anniversary celebrations ...

The postal stamp on noted mathematician Shri Srinivas Ramanujan

The Indian mathematical genius was born on 22 December 1887

Born in the town of Erode in Tamil Nadu, Ramanujan was largely self-taught and emerged from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century.

Komalattammal, mother of Ramanujan, displayed at SASTRA University, Kumbakonam.

SASTRA University bought the house of Ramanujan in Kumbakonam and is maintaining it as a monument since

2000.

The house in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu where Ramanujan grew up is now the Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, established by SASTRA University

and maintained as a monument from 2000.

SASTRA has also established the Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre which was inaugurated by the then President of India

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

A view of the street, where Ramanujan once lived

The cot used by Ramanujan is preserved at his Kumbakonam residence.

The Kumbakonam Town school where Ramanujan completed his studies in 1904.

Kumbakonam Arts College. In 1903, Ramanujan joined this college only to fail in all examinations except mathematics.

• Finally, in 1912, he secured a job as a clerk in the Madras Port Trust Office.• Here, his duties were light and so he

could devote a lot of time to his mathematical discoveries — which he recorded in his now celebrated notebooks.

• As luck would have it, the manager of the office, S.N. Aiyar, was also a mathematician who took kindly to Ramanujan and encouraged him in his mathematics. • It was he who suggested to

Ramanujan that he write to G.H. Hardy, a famous mathematician at Trinity College, Cambridge University.

Ramanujan was invited to come to Trinity College to work with Hardy.

• Ramanujan sailed to England in March 1914, just a few months before the outbreak of the First World War.

• From 1914 to 1917, Hardy and Ramanujan collaborated on more than half a dozen research papers. At the same time, Ramanujan published more than 30 research papers in three years.

Trinity College, Cambridge University.

His contributions

Last Effective contribution and died on 26 April 1920

A biography of Ramanujan

Robert Kanigel, biographer of Srinivasa Ramanujan

Ramanujam (2013) – Released bilingual movie (English and Tamil) traces the life of mathematician

genius Srinivasa Ramanujan.