Bhama Srinivasan facts for kids

Bhama Srinivasan was born on April 22, 1935. She is a famous mathematician. She is known for her work in a special area of math called representation theory of finite groups. This field helps us understand groups of numbers or shapes by showing them as movements or transformations.

In 1990, she received a special honor called the Noether Lecture for her important work. She also led the Association for Women in Mathematics as its president from 1981 to 1983. This group supports women in math.

Bhama Srinivasan earned her Ph.D. (a high-level degree) in 1959. She studied at the University of Manchester in England. Her main project was about "Problems on Modular Representations of Finite Groups." Her teacher was J. A. Green. Today, she is a Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This means she is a retired professor but still highly respected. She has also guided five students to get their own Ph.D.s.

Early Life and Education

Bhama Srinivasan was born in Madras, India. She went to the University of Madras there. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts, in 1954. Then, she got her Master of Science degree in 1955.

After her studies in India, she traveled to England. There, she continued her education to get her Ph.D. She started her teaching career in England. From 1960 to 1964, she was a math lecturer at the University of Keele.

Next, she moved to Canada for a special research position. From 1965 to 1966, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. After that, she returned to India. She taught at the Ramanujan Institute of Mathematics, which was part of her old university, the University of Madras. She taught there from 1966 to 1970.

Her Career in Mathematics

In 1970, Bhama Srinivasan moved to the United States. She became an associate professor at Clark University in Massachusetts. She taught there for ten years. In 1977, she became a citizen of the United States. That same year, she was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. This is a famous place where smart people do advanced research.

In 1980, she started teaching at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She became a professor of mathematics there. She has been a very important person in her field throughout her career.

In 1979, she gave an important speech at a big math meeting. It was for the American Mathematical Society (AMS). She talked about "Representations of classical groups." She has also been a visiting professor in other countries. She taught in Paris, France, at the Ecole Normale Superieure. She also taught at the University of Essen in Germany, Sydney University in Australia, and the Science University of Tokyo in Japan.

Bhama Srinivasan has also helped with math journals. She was an editor for the Proceedings of the AMS from 1983 to 1987. She also edited Communications in Algebra and Mathematical Surveys and Monographs. From 1991 to 1994, she was on a special committee for the AMS.

She worked with another mathematician, Paul Fong. They studied special groups of numbers called groups of the Lie type. Their work has been connected to research on quantum groups. This is exciting because it links pure math to physics, which studies how tiny particles behave. Even though Bhama Srinivasan usually focuses on math for its own sake, she was very interested when her research found a link to physics.

Awards and Special Honors

Bhama Srinivasan has received many awards for her work. In 2012, she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This is a high honor for mathematicians.

In 2017, she was chosen as a fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics. She was part of the very first group to receive this honor. She is also featured in a special deck of playing cards. These cards show notable women mathematicians. They were published by the Association of Women in Mathematics.