Shonak Patel..

Shonak Patel...who Sees math in everything around him.He thinks world is designed in patterns, hence entire universe, constructed in mathematics.Diagnosed at age 6 with Asperger’s Syndrome, Shonak has difficulty processing sensory stimulation, struggles with communication and often appears lost in his own world.He solved a difficult problem in the team round of the American Regions Math League answering the question: Find the smallest positive integer that has exactly 11 pairs of digits that form a prime number (in their original order).

Tathagat Avtar Tulsi

He completed high school at the age of 9, had a B.Sc at 10, an M.Sc in Physics at 12, and a PhD in Quantum Computing from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, at 21. In 2003, Time named him among the world’s seven most gifted youngsters. Now, at age 22, Patna-born prodigy Tathagat Avtar Tulsi has become possibly the youngest assistant professor at IIT. Tulsi will teach Physics at IIT Bombay from July 19, having chosen the institute over Waterloo University, Canada, and the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Bhopal, both of which had offered him jobs.

KOLKATA TOPPER

ISC topper Sreya is a student of Mahadevi Birla Shishu Vihar. Though she got to know from the council website that she had scored 98.75%, she had no clue for quite some time that she was the board topper. Sreya shared the honours with Sumedha Rai of St Anthony’s Junior College, Agra. She wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a chartered accountant. Punit, who stood second in ICSE, is a student of Bhawanipore Education Society. His score of 98.6% was just a shade lower than the country record of 98.8%, secured by a girl from Lilavati Poddar School, Mumbai. An extremely studious boy, Punit worked very hard for his brilliant results.

11th Asia Physics Olympiad (APhO)

The 11th Asia Physics Olympiad (APhO) started in Taipei on Saturday, with 181 students and their teachers from 16 countries or region.Teams from Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka.China is absent from the competition .China had participated in all past Olympiads when the host was not Taiwan, which also held the competition in 2001.Taiwanese students amassed five gold, one silver, four bronze and six honor medals at the 11th Asia Physics Olympiad.

Shankar Balasubramanian

Chennai-born Shankar Balasubramanian of Cambridge University has been named Innovator of the Year by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Britain's leading agency for academic research and training in non-clinical life sciences.He has been awarded £10,000 in recognition of his work on Solexa sequencing, the high speed genome sequencing technology. The award, now in its second year, is meant to encourage research that has practical impact on quality of life.Professor Balasubramanian, whose parents moved to Britain a year after he was born, graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and went on to do a PhD. He worked with David Klenerman of the department of chemistry, to invent low-cost and high-speed genome sequencing technology.

Perfect Rigor: A Genius And The Mathematical Breakthrough Of The Century By Masha Gessen,

This is the biography of one of the greatest living mathematicians, Grigory Perelman. The biography proceeds from a paradox: despite the fact that the subject is still alive, he has not been interviewed or spoken to. This peculiarity is not for the want of trying on the part of the biographer, Masha Gessen. It is totally to do with the personality of Perelman who, after he solved one of the toughest mathematical problems, became a recluse, refusing to meet anyone. He even refused the Fields Medal (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics) and a prize of $1 million.In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute in Boston had announced a prize of a million dollars to anyone who could solve the seven great unsolved problems of mathematics. One of these problems is a classic of mathematical topology and is known as the Poincaré Conjecture. It is named after Henri Poincaré who formulated it in 1904. The Conjecture had been worked on by many famous mathematicians and had been the subject of many false proofs. It was finally solved in 2006 by Perelman.Gessen’s marvellous book on a difficult subject and a difficult person is based on very detailed research. She has spoken to almost everyone who knows or knew Perelman — his classmates, teachers, coaches, teammates and colleagues in Russia and the United States of America. She was aided in her research by her own background. She is herself a mathematical whiz raised in Russia.One great advantage of this book is that it demands no knowledge of maths, but an interest in it

Bihar Gaurav Samman

Bihar government has started the process for recruitment of 80,000 primary teachers and 12,000 secondary and higher seecondary teachers.Government also decided to award "Bihar Gaurav Samman" carrying cash prize and a certificate to the students from the state securing high ranks in all-India competitive examination as well as international science competitions like Maths and Physics Olympiad.Any aspirant from Bihar securing the first rank in the UPSC, IIT, CAT and others would be awarded the "Bihar Gaurav Samman" with a cash prize of Rs One lakh, while those securing next five ranks would get a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each.

mysteries of invention

Mr Caldwell advances a theory in an article, "In the Air" published in the June 30 issue of the New Yorker magazine.It is about scientific and technological discoveries which are associated with one famous person in public mind, but in reality other scientists too had hit upon them at the same time. it makes evident that scientific discoveries are not the exclusive products of a single brilliant person's fertile mind, but are `in the air' all the time and within the reach of anyone who has the alertness to `snatch' them.For instance, as Mr Caldwell points out, Newton and Leibniz both discovered calculus. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both discovered evolution.Three mathematicians "invented" decimal fractions. Oxygen was discovered by Joseph Priestley and Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Color photography was invented at the same time by Charles Cros and by Louis Ducos du Hauron, in France.Logarithms were invented by John Napier and Henry Briggs in Britain, and by Joost Brgi in Switzerland.There were four independent discoveries of sunspots, all in 1611; by Galileo in Italy, Scheiner in Germany, Fabricius in Holland and Harriott in England .The law of conservation of energy, so significant in science and philosophy, was formulated four times independently in 1847, by Joule, Thomson, Colding and Helmholz. They had been anticipated by Robert Mayer in 1842.There seem to have been at least six different inventors of the thermometer and no less than nine claimants of the invention of the telescope.Typewriting machines were invented simultaneously in England and in America by several individuals in these countries. The steamboat is claimed as the "exclusive" discovery of Fulton, Jouffroy, Rumsey, Stevens and Symmington.There are 148 such major scientific discoveries for which credit can be claimed by more than one person, but is actually given to only one! NEW YORKER..

NASA PRIZE

Two Indian students have won the second place for their Design of Transport Aircraft for the Future sponsored by the American space agency NASA. Ms R. Anusha and Mr S. Srinath from the College of Engineering under Anna University, Guindy, Chen nai have won the second place for their Design of Transport Aircraft for the Future.Fourteen teams and two individual students submitted their designs in the annual competition sponsored by NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Programme part of the agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.The highest scoring graduate team was from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, USA. The contest asked students to create a future subsonic transport aircraft that could carry up to 50,000 pounds, operate on runways between 1,500 and 3,000 feet long, and cruise at speeds between 595 and 625 mph.

Polya prize

Rutgers University professor Vu Ha Van is to be awarded the George Polya prize by the US Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in San Diego, California, for his work in combinatorial theory.Van will receive an engraved medal and a 20,000 USD cash award on July 8.Van received his undergraduate degree in Hungary and his PhD in mathematics from Yale University in the US under the direction of Laszlo Lovasz, president of the International Mathematical Union and 1979 George Pólya Prize winner.Van worked for the Institute for Advanced Study, Microsoft and the University of California, before becoming a mathematics professor at Rutgers University in 2005.The prize committee said Van had made one of the most important contributions to his specialised field in the last ten years.. He is being honored for developing fundamental concentration inequalities for random polynomials that are applicable to broader contexts than earlier inequalities. These inequalities have enabled the solution of long-standing problems in projective geometry, convex geometry, extremal graph theory, number theory, and theoretical computer science. His research interests include combinatorics, probability, and additive number theory. He has received a Sloan Dissertation Fellowship (1997), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2002), and an NSF Career Award (2003). He has been a member of the IAS in 1998, 2005, and 2007, the last time as leader of a focus program, "Arithmetic Combinatorics.The George Pólya Prize was established in 1969 and is given every two years, alternately in two categories: (1) for a notable application of combinatorial theory; (2) for a notable contribution in another area of interest to George Pólya such as approximation theory, complex analysis, number theory, orthogonal polynomials, probability theory, or mathematical discovery and learning. The Prize is broadly intended to recognize specific recent work.

NEW IIMs

In 11th Five Year Plan, the HRD ministry had announced last year to set up 45 new higher education institutions, including 15 schools of technology and management and 14 world class universities all over the country.Currently, there are six IIMs in the country. Besides a new IIM at Shillong (already announced), seven more IIMs will be set up in Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. Maharashtra Government has decided to step up the demand for setting up an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the state.The first Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Northern India would come up at Rohtak in Haryana.

OBC vacancies: backlog to be cleared

The Union government has decided to fill a backlog of more than 28,000 vacancies reserved for other backward class (OBC) candidates in the backlog vacancy scheme that was originally meant for the scheduled castes/scheduled tribes (SC/ST) only.The instructions would be issued very soon to pave the way for conducting a special recruitment drive for filling up the backlog of 28,670 reserved vacancies Other OBCs.After the Indira Sawney Judgment, the 81st amendment had enabled the government to lift the ceiling of 50 per cent to fill the backlog vacancies reserved for SCs/STs.

Scientists mix faith and reason

A survey of 1,100 scientists across 130 universities and research institutes across the country threw up interesting results as 29 per cent believed in the philosophy of 'karma', 26 per cent accepted the principle of life after death and seven per cent researchers gave credence to existence of ghosts.A survey, by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut and Hyderabad-based Centre for Inquiry, found that religion and faith had deep roots in the minds of Indian scientists.As many as 64 per cent scientists said they would refuse to design biological weapons because of their moral and religious beliefs, while 54 per cent said they will not work on nuclear weapons for the same reasons.

Edward Lorenz

Edward Lorenz the father of chaos theory who showed how small actions could lead to major changes in what became known as the "butterfly effect" diedofcancer.butterfly effect has become a metaphor for the existence of seemingly insignificant moments that alter history and shape destinies. Typically unrecognized at first, they create threads of cause and effect that appear obvious in retrospect, changing the course of a human life or rippling through the global economy.Lorenz, a meteorologist, figured out in the 1960s that small differences in a dynamic system such as the atmosphere could set off enormous changes.Born in 1917 in West Hartford Connecticut, Lorenz earned degrees in mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1938, from Harvard University in 1940, and degrees in meteorology from MIT in 1943 and 1948.. As a low-profile assistant professor in MIT's department of meteorology in 1961, Lorenz created an early computer program to simulate weather. While serving as a weather forecaster for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War Two, he decided to study meteorology.In 1991, Lorenz won the Kyoto Prize for basic sciences in the field of earth and planetary sciences.

David Mumford

David Mumford, a professor at Brown University's Applied Mathematics Division, was a co-winner Sunday of the Wolf Prize for his groundbreaking theoretical work in algebraic geometry. It is considered one of the most prestigious international honors in mathematics.Mumford, professor emeritus at Brown University and Harvard University, shared this year's prize with Pierre Deligne and Phillip Griffiths of Princeton University.According to the Wolf Foundation, he was recognized for his "work on algebraic surfaces; on geometric invariant theory; and for laying the foundations of the modern algebraic theory of the moduli space of curves and theta functions." Mumford announced he would donate his $50,000 prize money to Bir-Zeit University in the West Bank and to Gisha, an Israeli lobby that works to help Palestinian students reach their places of study.Mr. Mumford said that mathematics had been able to flourish around the world because of the frequent interchange between scholars in different countries, and that international exchanges with other scholars had been important in his own career.The Israel-based foundation was established by Ricardo Wolf, a German-born inventor, diplomat and philanthropist who spent the last years of his life as Cuba's representative in Israel, where he died in 1981.The foundation presents five or six annual prizes, often shared. Its motto is "to promote science and art for the benefit of mankind." Mumford shared his prize with two other mathematicians.

TCS asked 500 staffs to leave for poor performance

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has asked around 500 people to leave the company after the second annual appraisal it carries out, citing performance-related issues. By the end of the financial year, this number could go up to 600. The employees who were asked to leave are mostly those with 2-3 years of experience and do not include trainees because they have less than a year’s experience.Last week, TCS was in the news for cutting down the variable pay of employees for slippages in internal growth targets — a move that will save it about Rs 83 crore.An official statement from the company termed it a routine exercise carried out bi-annually to weed out non-performers.source--Economic times

Earn while they learn

There is a good news for the students of Delhi University as the varsity management is mulling "earn while they learn" programme for its students.undergraduate and postgraduate students will be provided part time jobs within the university set-up while they pursue their studies. They will be given employment for 25 to 30 hours per month.There is a need for students to understand work culture and professionalism while pursuing their academic life.At the same time, this will reduce the monetary burden on their parents, he said, adding that the programme would also protect students from indulging into non-social activities as they won't have leisure time for them.

Arjuna awards 2006

Manavjit Singh Sandhu, who set the shooting rages ablaze with his record breaking feats in 2006, was today selected for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the country's highest sporting honour.Ace archer Jayanta Talukdar, athlete K M Binu, chess player P Harikrishna, shuttler Chetan Anand, woman cricketer Anjum Chopra and woman hockey player Jyoti Sunita Kullu were among the 14 selected for Arjuna awards 2006. The list of awardees was finalised by a 15-member committee headed by former Indian captain Kapil Dev and included renowned sports personalities like K Malleswari, P T Usha and Anjali Bhagwat. Former All England champion Prakash Padukone headed another 15-member committee, constituted to choose winners of Dronacharya award for coaches.Apart from Dravid and Jeev, Koneru Humpy (chess), M C Marykom (boxing), Gagan Narang and Samresh Jung (both shooters), Mahesh Bhupathi (tennis) were among the other nominees for the prestigious Khel Ratna award.The list of awardees: Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna: Manavjit Singh Sandhu
Arjuna Awards: P Harikrishna (chess), K M Binu (athletics), Vijender (boxing), Anjum Chopra (womens cricket), Jyoti Sunita Kullu (womens hockey), Chetan Anand (badminton), Jayanta Talukdar (archery), Navneet Gautam (kabaddi), Vijay Kumar (shooting), Saurav Ghosal (squash), Subhajit Saha (table tennis), Geeta Rani (womens weightlifting), Geetika Jhakar (womens wrestling) and Rohit Bhakaar (sport for physically challenged).
Dhayn Chand Awards: Varinder Singh (hockey), Shamsher Singh (kabaddi), Rajendra Singh (wrestling). Dronacharya Awards: R. D. Singh (athletics, paralympic), Damodaran Chandralal (boxing), Koneru Ashok (chess)

Ramon Magsaysay Award

Seven people from China, India, South Korea, Nepal and the Philippines will receive this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award.The awardees include an environmentalist, an AIDS activist, a blind lawyer - all from China - as well as a journalist who writes about India's rural poor, a South Korean pastor, a Nepalese educator and a former senator from the Philippines.The award, to be given out in Manila on Aug. 31, is named for Ramon Magsaysay, the late Philippine president. Some 256 Asians have received it in various categories since it was established in 1957.The Philippines's Jovito Salonga, a former senator, will receive the prize for government service. A staunch opponent of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, Salonga defended victims of the regime and led efforts to recover its stolen wealth.The Reverend Kim Sun Tae, from South Korea, will be honored for public service. Orphaned by the Korean War and blinded when he was young, Kim struggled to become a Christian pastor and helped found the Siloam Eye Hospital in Seoul that provides eye services to poor Koreans. More than 20,000 people have received free eye surgery.Mahabir Pun, awardee for community leadership, used wireless technology for the benefit of poor villages in Nepal. After 20 years in the United States, Pun returned to Nepal to help establish schools and, later, with donations of computers and wireless-communications gadgets from all over the world, helped hook these schools and villages to the Internet.Tang Xiyang is recognized with the prize for peace and international understanding. He was known for his "Green Camps," which have helped publicize the degradation of China's environment. The camps, in which environmentalists and students are dispatched to areas in China where the environment is at risk, have helped influence government policy, according to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation.Palagummi Sainath, a journalist from India, will receive the prize for journalism, literature and creative communication arts. The foundation said Sainath had written passionately about India's poor and the injustices they suffer. Today, "his journalism workshops occur directly in the villages, where he teaches young protégés to identify and write good stories and to be agents of change," the foundation said.The awardees for emergent leadership are China's Chen Guangcheng and Chung To. Chen, who is blind, led the filing of a class-action lawsuit in 2004 against officials in rural Shandong Province for, among other complaints, coercing women into having late-term abortions or sterilization. Chen publicized his case, eliciting a backlash from officials that later put him in jail, where he is serving a four-year sentence for "inciting a mob" of supporters.

Undergrad Publishes Mormon Cricket Genome

A Brigham Young University junior molecular biology major has sequenced the mitochondrial genome of the "Mormon cricket," the insect said to have scourged Utah's early settlers' crops until the miraculous intervention of California gulls.Mormon crickets still affect Utah today - a spray program is in place to treat nearly 100,000 acres in Box Elder County inundated with the pests. Daniel Fenn, a Salt Lake City native, is the lead author on "The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Mormon cricket (Anabrus simplex: Tettigoniidae: Orthoptera)," published in the academic journal Insect Molecular Biology.