December 22 is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India. It is the birth anniversary of Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in Tamil Nadu’s Erode to a Brahmin Iyengar family. He had developed a liking for mathematics at a very young age.
He studied at the Government College in Kumbakonam in 1903
In 1912, Ramanujan started working as a clerk in the Madras Port Trust. He met Hardy in 1913, after which he went to Trinity College.
In 1916, Ramanujan received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. He went on to publish several papers on his subject with Hardy’s help.
Ramanujan was elected to the London Mathematical Society in 1917.Next year, he was elected to the prestigious Royal Society for his research on Elliptic Functions and theory of numbers.
In 1919, Ramanujan returned to India. A year later, on April 26, he breathed his last owing to deteriorating health. He was just 32 years old.
His biography ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ by Robert Kanigel depicts his life and journey to fame.