Sunday, November 19, 2006

Shing Tung Yau's Titanic Contriution to Chinese Mathematics

Finally, and most seriously of all, the article completely misrepresents the titanic contributions Yau has made to Chinese mathematics, and I feel I must briefly say something about these. I know a little about his work in China because Yau has always been uncomprisingly broad in his vision, and has strove to use his influence and institutions to develop all major fields of mathematical research, including number theory (my own area). I think, without doubt, his greatest contribution to Chinese mathematics has been his remarkable success in training a whole new generation of Chinese differential geometers, who are now at the forefront of research in this highly important field, with its links to physics and cosmology. Secondly, he has created from square one, and now directs, important research institutes in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Academy of Science in Beijing, and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. In each case, he secured through his own efforts the funding for these institutes, built the buildings, and continues to work tirelessly to have excellent research done at them. Thirdly, he has now successfully organized, for the benefit of all Chinese mathematicians around the world, three highly successful International Congresses of Chinese Mathematicians over the last decade in Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong. I have had the good fortune to attend all three Congresses, and I am full of admiration of Yau's tireless efforts to get funding for the Congresses and to ensure that all Chinese mathematicians with interesting new research results should be given the opportunity to speak at them. Finally, Yau has been the driving force behind an imaginative scheme to encourage gifted high school students in Hong Kong to get a taste for mathematical research early their lives. This is only a partial list of Yau's work for Chinese mathematics, and I must stress that it lists only those aspects of his which work benefit research in all fields of mathematics. I do not think there is any other living mathematician who can claim to have even a fraction of achievements like these, which are aimed at the good of the whole mathematical community. It is very sad that the article in the New Yorker took no time to mention these great contributions, but wasted much time on gossip and irrelevant stories.
This is an extract from John Coates letter to New Yorker.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Another guy Yau !!!

Yau’s family moved to Hong Kong from mainland China in 1949, when he was five months old, along with hundreds of thousands of other refugees fleeing Mao’s armies. The previous year, his father, a relief worker for the United Nations, had lost most of the family’s savings in a series of failed ventures. In Hong Kong, to support his wife and eight children, he tutored college students in classical Chinese literature and philosophy.

When Yau was fourteen, his father died of kidney cancer, leaving his mother dependent on handouts from Christian missionaries and whatever small sums she earned from selling handicrafts. Until then, Yau had been an indifferent student. But he began to devote himself to schoolwork, tutoring other students in math to make money. “Part of the thing that drives Yau is that he sees his own life as being his father’s revenge,” said Dan Stroock, the M.I.T. mathematician, who has known Yau for twenty years. “Yau’s father was like the Talmudist whose children are starving.”

Yau studied math at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he attracted the attention of Shiing-Shen Chern, the preƫminent Chinese mathematician, who helped him win a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley. Chern was the author of a famous theorem combining topology and geometry. He spent most of his career in the United States, at Berkeley. He made frequent visits to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and, later, China, where he was a revered symbol of Chinese intellectual achievement, to promote the study of math and science.

In 1969, Yau started graduate school at Berkeley, enrolling in seven graduate courses each term and auditing several others. He sent half of his scholarship money back to his mother in China and impressed his professors with his tenacity. He was obliged to share credit for his first major result when he learned that two other mathematicians were working on the same problem. In 1976, he proved a twenty-year-old conjecture pertaining to a type of manifold that is now crucial to string theory. A French mathematician had formulated a proof of the problem, which is known as Calabi’s conjecture, but Yau’s, because it was more general, was more powerful. (Physicists now refer to Calabi-Yau manifolds.) “He was not so much thinking up some original way of looking at a subject but solving extremely hard technical problems that at the time only he could solve, by sheer intellect and force of will,” Phillip Griffiths, a geometer and a former director of the Institute for Advanced Study, said.

In 1980, when Yau was thirty, he became one of the youngest mathematicians ever to be appointed to the permanent faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study, and he began to attract talented students. He won a Fields Medal two years later, the first Chinese ever to do so. By this time, Chern was seventy years old and on the verge of retirement. According to a relative of Chern’s, “Yau decided that he was going to be the next famous Chinese mathematician and that it was time for Chern to step down.”

Fields Medals announced and the also rejected!!!

Terence Tao ,Grigori Grisha Perelman and two more guys ....but not Manjul Bhargava...its OK...there is till time.....
Terence Tao is of Chinese origin and Perelman and one more guy(among the fields winners) are Russians.
The fourth guy is from France.
China has produced two fields Medalists by now.When is an Indian gona get it and make India proud???

GRIGORI PERELMAN

Grigory Perelman did not plan to become a mathematician. “There was never a decision point,” he said when we met. We were outside the apartment building where he lives, in Kupchino, a neighborhood of drab high-rises. Perelman’s father, who was an electrical engineer, encouraged his interest in math. “He gave me logical and other math problems to think about,” Perelman said. “He got a lot of books for me to read. He taught me how to play chess. He was proud of me.” Among the books his father gave him was a copy of “Physics for Entertainment,” which had been a best-seller in the Soviet Union in the nineteen-thirties. In the foreword, the book’s author describes the contents as “conundrums, brain-teasers, entertaining anecdotes, and unexpected comparisons,” adding, “I have quoted extensively from Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Mark Twain and other writers, because, besides providing entertainment, the fantastic experiments these writers describe may well serve as instructive illustrations at physics classes.” The book’s topics included how to jump from a moving car, and why, “according to the law of buoyancy, we would never drown in the Dead Sea.”

Friday, August 25, 2006

Sunday, May 21, 2006

China had built one of the fastest trains inthe world and now the longest dam?



China -the roaring Asian dragon is flexing its muscles again .It has built one of the fastest trains as well as the longest dam in the world to solve the annual river flooding problem and also produce abundant electricity.
About the Chinese train.
``The successful test of the train shows that China has mastered the technology of low-to medium-speed maglev trains,'' said Zhang Kunlun, deputy director of the School of Electrical Engineering of the Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu.
The maglev(Magnetic Levigation) train was developed by a maglev research team of the university, one of China's key engineering universities.
With a weight of 18 tonnes, the test train can carry 60 persons. It can travel at speeds of up to 160 kmph.


The Chinese dam.
China completed construction of the world's largest dam on the 20th of May,2006, in Three Gorges area, central China's Hubei province, signifying a milestone accomplishment that aims to tame the flood-prone Yangtze river, the nation's longest.
This is also a major Hydro-elecric project.

China is building the much needed infrastructure to compete with their arch -rivals the US.The Chinese millineam is just unfolding.

US loosing the edge over R&D?

US has substantially increased the number of H1B visas which allows immigrants with an advanced university degree in Science ,Technology ,Engineering or Math to easily attain green card and help the Americans help consolidate their hegemony in the esteemed area of Research and Development.so are more Asians welcome to the US?
Already all major Universities have Indian & Chinese Profesors at the helm of their affairs. US seems to be slowly but steadily loosing its edge over technological research which is an after-effect of inferior Science and Math education at the highschool level.This is happening at exactly the time when the dollar is increasily losing its sheen.so are we all heading for a great American collapse?

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

World Telecommunication Day

Today MAY 17TH is World Telecom day....realizing the importance for a global movement to building up an information society and its potential for development ,The international Telelcomunications Union (ITU) has rightly called upon the telecommunity to celebrate this year's World telecom day as "World Information Society day".The ITU has also stressed the importance and urgency of promoting Global Cybersecurity in order to infuse confidence in the user-community of the cyberspace .

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Gaokao-The fearsome Chinese University Entrance Examination

This is the University Entrance Examination of China ..which is sat by about 8 million(80 lakhs) 18 year olds a year and failed by 3 million of them ,unless you were a Math geek during your highschool.

again more about this after my exams.....

Happy to be in China prison?

Democracy can never come to a land where people ,busy making money , are just not willing to destabalise the system ,inspite of the prison camps and mass capital punishment.

More abt Chinese highschool and University Education system and its rise.....
after my exams...

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize for Applications of Mathematics.


International Mathematical Union had created this Gauss Prize to reward technological breakthroughs which have a Mathematical undercurrent.According to the IMU "It seems that only the experts know that mathematics is a driving force behind many modern technologies. The Gauss Prize, to be awarded for the first time in 2006, has been created to help the rest of the world realize this fundamental fact. The prize is to honor scientists whose mathematical research has had an impact outside mathematics – either in technology, in business, or simply in people's everyday lives."

The Gauss Prize is awarded jointly by the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung (DMV = German Mathematical Union) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU), and administered by the DMV. The prize consists of a medal and a monetary award. The source of the prize is a surplus from the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM '98) held in Berlin.

With the Gauss Prize the IMU is broadening the range of its awards, now including the influence of mathematics to other disciplines. The award ceremony will include an overview of the achievements of the prize-winner. The presentation of the mathematical work will be addressed to the general public as well as journalists, so that all may appreciate the importance of mathematics for everyday life.

Friday, April 07, 2006

European Institute of Technology

The European Union is planning to start a European Institue of Technology to compete with its US rival,the prestigious MIT.It is supposed to attract the best minds of today from all over the world .They fear that the US Universities are head and shoulders above their European rivals and emerging economic powerhouses like CHINA and INDIA are fast improving their Research and Development capabilities.China is likely to surpass the US in the number of doctoral degrees awarded and India is also producing more doctorates than ever before.On top of this China has plans of evolving their top universities to compete with MIT in about two decades or so.As always India seems to be "missing the bus".It will be quite some time before IISc or IITs reach the quality and prestige of MIT or UC Berkeley.(It has a lot to do with the funding I believe).

Research,Development and Innovation are very important for any country's progress.Unless India does something to improve its higher education and research capabilities ,the "brain drain " of its best minds will continue.India will be spending crores of rupees to educate some brilliant young minds who "just leave".

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Fields Medal --Nobel Prize of Mathematics

The Fields Medal is one of the most prestigious Mathematics prizes.It is given by the International Congress of Mathematicians every four years to a maximum of three Mathematicians of age under 40.
This year ICM is going be held in the month of november and for the first time a Mathematician of Indian origin by name MANJUL BHARGAVA is predicted to win it.

He is Professor of Mathematics,Princeton University(Princeton University is the Mathematical centre of the Universe).He works in the area of ALGEBRAIC NUMBER THEORY.His work is considered to be an extension of Gauss' work.

Mathematicans all over are eagerly awaiting for the ICM to break the long silence about the most prestigious recognition in the area of Mathematics.Indian contribution in the field of Mathematics in the last fifty years has been very meagre."Polynomial time deterministic algorithm for checking the primalty of numbers" by Prof:Manaindra Agarwal of IIT Kanpur was the only noteworthy contribution by a nation of one billion people in the recent times.

Mathematics,the queen of Sciences seems to be lacking the popularity it deserves due to some obscure reason.In India IITs take a lion's share of the most talented young blood of Mathematics and they end up persuing their higher studies in an Engineering descipline thus denying Math a brilliant student.China is supposed to be having a very strong base in pure Science Education ,this being reflected in their IMO performance(All five Chinese candidates get gold medals invariably from time immemorial).
The standard of Math,Science and Engineering Education is very critical for a country's Technological Progress and it being a centre of Research and Development and there by Innovation.India and China have been benefitting due to this for quite a long time by now.The US edge on Tech and R&D seems be eroding and the Asian countries seems to be catching up.

This is the right time for India to Rise and shine in an increasingly Asian Century.

Monday, March 27, 2006



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Friday, March 24, 2006

Vedic Philosophy for Students

What is the Vedas?
Veda means Knowledge.Any knowledge you accept is veda for the teachings of the veda are the original knowledge.

Why is the Material Knowlede imperfect?
Ours is a conditioned soul.The differnce between a conditioned soul and a liberated soul is that a condioned soul suffers from four major defects. The first one being the infalliblity of making mistakes as the saying goes to err is human.The second one is to be illusioned and the third being the cheating propensity.Everyone tries hard to portray himself as much better than he really is.Lastly our senses are imperfect.Even our intellect has its own limitations though we fail to ackowledge it.

Vedic knowlege is also called Sabda-pramana.Another name is Sruti.It is the absolute knowledge given to us by the supreme God-Head.Aim of Vedic Research is to explore the almighy and paths of reaching it.

The Composition of Vedas
Originally there was only one Veda. Ancient people had the memory and intelligence to grasp and remember the whole purport after hearing just once from their spiritual master.But five thousand years ago Vsayadeva put the vedas in writng for the people of our times i e the Kaliyuga
He divided the Vedas into four parts -Rig , Sam, Atharva and Yajur Vedas.He also compiled Mahabharatha and Puranas as well as the Upanisads.Then he summerised all these into "Vedanta-Sutra".This is the latest word of the Vedas.
Vedanta-Sutra
has commentaries by many people.Vyasadeva himself has given a perfect comentary by name "Srimad Bhagavatham" which talks about the absolute knowledge and its nature is described in "Srimad Bhagavad Gita".

Astrology : Should we beleive in it?

The Sanatana Dharma philosophy teaches the "Law of Karma" which talks about God neither punishing nor rewarding anyone and that we reward and punish overselves with our own deeds .Only devotional services can destroy our Karma.
So we are fortunate enough to get a human body in this birth and to be able to read this blog of mine.Now in our past millions of birth we have accumulated a lot of Karma with our actions.So we will be enjoying/suffering the consequences of these actions all our present life.....which implies the events unfolding in our lives were already predetermined and you have very little of a "freewill".
Thus the so called "pseudo-science" of astrology is trying to uncover what is in store for you in your present life.Doesnt this make some sense to you?

Mathematics undergrad Programmes

There are quite a large number of students who have a lot of interest to persue pure science programmes in Math ,Physics and related areas and they seem to be lacking the proper guidance.
There are two very good institutes that offer world class undergrad Math programmes in India (to the best of my Knowledge).


There are separate entrance exams for entry to these prestigous institutions.you can find detalied information about them in these links.

Office of Profit?

why did the office of profit issue come to light all of a sudden? Does that mean that all the MPs and MLAs were having offices of profit till now and nobody was bothered untill some one "notified" the EC about it?

Friday, March 17, 2006

The Rise of CHINA

The dragon is roaring ....the worlds fastest growing economy and the most populous nation in the world is rising to challenge the American hegemony.
These are just some of the facts and figures about our neighbour roaring on the otherside of Himayalas.
CHINA has overtaken the US as the world's largest recipient of FDI.(Even India has overtaken the US now).CHINA has overtaken Britain and France to become the fourth largest Economy of the world.(US,Japan and Germany being larger than them).CHINA is expected to become second largest economy by a couple decades ..and the world's largest in another couple of them.
CHINA has the largest number of telephone lines,World's largest army,largest railway network etc...
CHINA has become only the third nation after the US and the erstwhile USSR to send man to space indigenously.CHINA has developed " Neutron Bombs" ,an atomic bomb with extraordinary devastating potentials.(only the US has this currently).
CHINA is already the world's largest importer of foreign goods and services and is expected to become the World's largest exporter also by 2010.(currently the US Germany and Japan are ahead of it).
Since the late seventies when CHINA started their "economic reforms " ,the chinese economy has been growing at an average rate of 9.4% per annum...which has made it the fastest growing economy in the World.But this economic progress at a neck-breaking pace was acheived with its own drawbacks ....like the huge urban-rural divide and the rising diparities in income levels of its 1.3 billion popullation.

When Mao Zedong had captured power in 1949,China was facing almost the same problems as India. .Appaling illitracy,poverty and mass unemployment and rudimentary state of the economy were prominent them.But what is that made them so successful fifty years later and why are Indians still hounded by these age old problems of poverty ,unemployment and illitracy?
India has 26 crores of its people below the poverty-line and about 36crores of people who cannot read and write in even their mother tongue.A huge chunk of the people below the povert line in the world have their dwelling place in India.India ia among the most corrupt nations of the world.
So was following the Nehru propagated socialist system a big failure?

When our neighbour on the other side of Himalayas is rising to challenge the Americans ,India seems to be "missing the bus" on many occasions.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Bhagavad Gita--The Essence of Vedic Knowledge

Bhagavad Gita is universally renowed as the brightest jewel of Indian spiritual knowledge and wisdom.It provides a perfect guide to the science of Self- realization.Indeed ,no work even compares in its revelations of man's essential nature ,his environment and ,ultimately ,his relationship with God.

What the so called "Atheists " dont understand is that our senses and the intellect are imperfect and limited .They invariably associate themsleves with their body and all their activities are related to this material world. Thus they remained engrossed in the material persuits of wealth,fame and power.

The true aim of this human body given to yourself and myself is the persuit of the highest knowlwedge and Self realization.It will take some time for us to truely comprehend the meaning of these sentences ....