S. R. S. VARADHAN is the Frank Jay Gould Professor of Science at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, USA, and is a renowned mathematician known for his fundamental contributions to probability theory. He completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. Professor Varadhan is known for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and for creating a unified theory of large deviations. He is a recipient of the National Medal of Science (in 2010) from President Barack Obama, the highest honour bestowed by the Government of the United States of America on scientists, engineers, and inventors. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan (in 2008). He received the Abel Prize (in 2007) for his work on large deviations with Monroe D. Donsker. He was also awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research (in 1996) from the American Mathematical Society for his work with Daniel W. Stroock on diffusion processes, Margaret and Herman Sokol Award of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, New York University (in 1995), and Birkhoff Prize (in 1994). He also has two honorary degrees from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, and from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India.
Professor Varadhan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, Norway. He has been an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, U.S.A.; the World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy; the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Royal Society, London, U. K.; the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, India; the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, U.S.A., and American Mathematical Society, Providence, U.S.A. His areas of research include probability theory and its relation to analysis, various aspects of stochastic processes and their connections to certain classes of linear and nonlinear partial differential equations.
