Contributions of Alladi Ramakrishnan to the Mathematical Sciences

Professor Alladi Ramakrishnan, my father, belonged to a small eminent group of Indian scientists who made fundamental contributions to several fields of study and sustained a high level of productivity over a significant period of time. If among this select versatile group of researchers we seek those who also have made monumental contributions to the profession by creating leading institutions of advanced research, then we are down to a mere handful such as Professors Raman, Bhabha, Mahalanobis, Ramakrishnan, and a few more. In an illustrious scientific career that began in 1947, Professor Ramakrishnan has published about 150 influential research papers in leading journals on topics ranging over Stochastic Processes, Elementary Particle Physics, Matrix Algebra, and the Special Theory of Relativity, has guided 24 PhD students, lectured on his research at over 200 institutions of higher learning the world over and at numerous international conferences, and created MATSCIENCE, The Insitute of Mathematical Sciences in Madras. It is amazing that even after his retirement, and indeed until the very end, his passion for science and his spirit of enquiry remained unabated. Here I shall briefly describe some of his significant contributions including his most recent ones, and the circumstances that led to them.