Mahan Mitra
Encyclopedia
Mahan Mitra, also known as Mahan Maharaj and Swami Vidyanathananda, is an Indian mathematician and a recipient of the 2011 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
in Mathematical Sciences..
from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997, he worked briefly at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences
in 1998. Spiritually inclined, he joined the Ramakrishna Math
as a renunciate upon being impressed by the life and work of the Vedantic philosopher Ramakrishna Paramahansa. . His initial name was Brahmachari BrahmaChaitanya. He was renamed as Swami Vidyanathananda after receiving his Saffron robe on 12th January, 2009. Swami Vidyanathananda is a monk at the order's headquarters at Belur Math
and an associate Professor of mathematics at the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University
at Belur Math
.. He has widely published and presented his research in the area of hyperbolic manifolds and "ending lamination spaces." His most notable work is the Proof of existence of Cannon-Thurston Maps. This led to the resolution of the conjecture that connected limit sets of finitely generated Kleinian groups are locally connected. He is also the author of Maps on boundaries of hyperbolic metric spaces .
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology is awarded annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and Physics...
in Mathematical Sciences..
Early education
Mahan Mitra studied at St Xavier’s Collegiate School, Calcutta, till Class XII. He then then entered IIT Kanpur after securing a national rank of 67 in the Indian Institutes of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE). He initially chose to study electrical engineering but switched to mathematics upon realizing his love for that subject, and despite having an almost perfect GPA, and despite persuasion from family members. . Switching to the study of mathematics was a turning point for his life, as he immensely enjoyed his studies in the following years. He graduated with an M.Sc. in integrated mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur in 1992 and as the gold medalist of his batch.Career
Mahan Mitra joined the PhD program in mathematics at UC Berkeley with Andrew Casson as his advisor.. He received the Earl C. Anthony Fellowship, U.C. Berkeley in 1992-1993 and the prestigious Alfred P.Sloan Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for 1996-1997 . After earning a doctoratePHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997, he worked briefly at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Institute of Mathematical Sciences
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences is a research centre located in Chennai, India.IMSc is a national institute for fundamental research in frontier disciplines of the mathematical and physical sciences: theoretical computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics...
in 1998. Spiritually inclined, he joined the Ramakrishna Math
Ramakrishna Math
Ramakrishna Math is a religious monastic order, considered part of the Hindu reform movements. It was set up by Swami Vivekananda to follow the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna...
as a renunciate upon being impressed by the life and work of the Vedantic philosopher Ramakrishna Paramahansa. . His initial name was Brahmachari BrahmaChaitanya. He was renamed as Swami Vidyanathananda after receiving his Saffron robe on 12th January, 2009. Swami Vidyanathananda is a monk at the order's headquarters at Belur Math
Belur Math
' or Belur Mutt is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, a chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India and is one of the significant institutions in Calcutta...
and an associate Professor of mathematics at the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University
Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University
The Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University is a private university that is administered by the Ramakrishna Mission Order of monks. Currently , it has four campuses in Belur, Coimbatore, Ranchi and Narendrapur....
at Belur Math
Belur Math
' or Belur Mutt is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, a chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India and is one of the significant institutions in Calcutta...
.. He has widely published and presented his research in the area of hyperbolic manifolds and "ending lamination spaces." His most notable work is the Proof of existence of Cannon-Thurston Maps. This led to the resolution of the conjecture that connected limit sets of finitely generated Kleinian groups are locally connected. He is also the author of Maps on boundaries of hyperbolic metric spaces .
Personality
Swami Vidyanathananda, more frequently known as Mahan Maharaj to his students and colleagues, is fluent in English, Hindi and Bengali. He also knows a bit of Tamil, learnt from his stay at IMSc, which he shares with his students during lighter moments of some classes. He holds a reputation as a charismatic teacher in several areas of mathematics. He is reported to enjoy a smoke occasionally. He has been quoted to say: “I am enjoying being a monk as much as I enjoy my mathematics”.External links
- Gaddeswarup's blog
- http://www.rkmvu.ac.in/intro/academics/matsc_website/mahan/index
- http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/1396075793073447853uMSUBW