Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar
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Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar (b. 1930) is an Indian mathematician known for his contributions to algebraic geometry. He is the Marshall Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Computer Science and Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. His name is associated with Abhyankar's conjecture of finite group theory.
He was born in a Maharashtrian koknastha Brahmin family. He earned his B.Sc. from Bombay University in 1951, his A.M. at Harvard University in 1952, and his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1956. His thesis, written under the direction of Oscar Zariski, was titled Local uniformization on algebraic surfaces over modular ground fields. Before going to Purdue, he was an associate professor of mathematics at Cornell University. He was appointed the Marshall Distinguished Professor of Mathematics in 1967.
His research topics include algebraic geometry (particularly resolution of singularities), commutative algebra, local algebra, valuation theory, theory of functions of several complex variables, quantum electrodynamics, circuit theory, invariant theory, combinatorics, computer-aided design, and robotics. He popularized the Jacobian conjecture.
His current research is in the area of computational geometry and algorithmic algebraic geometry.
[edit] Honors
He is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and an editorial board member of the Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics. He has won numerous awards and honors. In 1978, he received the Chauvenet Prize from the Mathematical Association of America. On 29 October 1998, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree (Docteur Honoris Causa) by the University of Angers in France.
