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Remembering CS Seshadri: An intellectual stalwart and brilliant mathematician
“He brought together mathematics and music,” Professor K VijayRaghavan, principal scientific advisor to the prime minister said.
Eminent mathematician Professor CS Seshadri, known for his contributions in algebraic geometry and mathematical education, died of Parkinson’s on Friday in Chennai. He was 88.
“In the passing away of Professor CS Seshadri, we have lost an intellectual stalwart who did outstanding work in mathematics. His efforts, especially in algebraic geometry, will be remembered for generations. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” tweeted PM Narendra Modi said.
He has been described as the Hollywood stereotype of an absent-minded brilliant mathematician by those who have crossed paths with him.
“When in Mumbai he used to go for walks by the sea with his wife and if he met someone while talking to them he would get so engrossed in the mathematics of it that he would forget his name, his wife’s name, and that of the person they met. Many mathematicians write in the air pretending to have a blackboard in front of them while thinking of a problem, he is the only person I have seen also use a duster to rub it clean and start over,” said Professor K VijayRaghavan, principal scientific advisor to the prime minister.
“He was one of the most lovably fuzzy people I have seen. While having a conversation with him, it was never clear whether he was focusing on the conversation at all. But then he would start focusing on the mathematics and he would become calm and silent and completely different person. He would absorb the problems and then explain it better than I have seen anyone do,” said Prof Mahan MJ.
VijayRaghavan said that even as a student he was in awe of Seshadri and his dedication to mathematics. “He brought together mathematics and music.”
Seshadri was a Carnatic singer who would take out time from all the mathematics for his sadhana religiously. Even in his last days, he was training a music student.
“I last had a conversation with him over video call on Wednesday. I said I would meet you soon, and he replied in this time ‘tomorrow I cannot assure I will be there’. He laughed at the conversation. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s that I think worsened after the demise of his wife last October. Solving maths problems seemed to help him; that’s what we were doing,” said Vikraman Balaji, professor at Chennai Mathematical Institute that Seshadri had founded.
“He was a genius and extraordinarily humble. He was confident about his work and did not boast about it,” said Balaji. He was known for the Narasimhan–Seshadri theorem that has had a profound impact on the subject. “It is one of the finest works to come out of post-independence India. It originally related to his field of algebraic geometry but has impact in several branches of mathematics. It is an indication of a really deep piece of work,” said Prof Mahan MJ, professor of mathematics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
Born Conjeevaram Srirangachari Seshadri in Kanchipuram in 1932, he was the eldest of eleven children. He did his BA (Hons) in Mathematics from Loyola College in Chennai and went on to study at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), where he later joined as faculty.
He then went on to set up the Chennai Mathematical Institute that combined teaching and research at the undergraduate level.
“Not content with his extraordinary and widely recognized contributions through research, he established the Chennai Mathematical Institute, now a recognized powerhouse of undergraduate education, and research,” said Prof VijayRaghavan.
He was elected as fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences in 1971, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar – the country’s most prestigious science award – in 1972. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1988. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2009 and elected a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2010.
“CS Seshadri’s lasting contribution is that he has ensured there will be many more like him from the CMI and from all over India. A life in mathematics, music, institution building, and humanism. Worth understanding and its core values worth emulating, no matter what we do,” said Prof VijayRaghavan.
