Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan

The winner of this year's Abel Prize in Mathematics, Indian American Professor Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan has said that his education in India provided him with the necessary foundation for success. "As I receive the award I am very aware that the early education I received in India from high school through college and doctoral studies at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, has provided me with the necessary foundation for success," Varadhan, said in an e-mail sent to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.Varadhan is presently the Frank J. Gould Professor of Science and Professor of Mathematics at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. He was a student of Madras University and had a doctoral degree from ISI, Kolkata. He was awarded the Abel Prize for his work on probability theory and in developing a unified theory of large deviations.