Science & Technology
Madras Icon Spotlight
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Mathematical Genius & Fellow of the Royal Society
Remarkable Achievement
Formulated groundbreaking mathematical theorems in number theory, infinite series, and mock theta functions.
Connection to Chennai
Worked as a clerk at the Madras Port Trust, composed seminal notebooks in George Town and Triplicane, and lived in Chetpet.
Story & Journey
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) was one of the most brilliant mathematical minds in human history. While working as a humble clerk at the Madras Port Trust in George Town, Chennai, he pursued mathematics in isolated notebooks filled with astonishing formulas.
In 1913, his correspondence with Professor G. H. Hardy at the University of Cambridge led to his travel to England, where their extraordinary collaboration produced breakthroughs in partition functions, highly composite numbers, and modular forms. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the young age of 30.
Returning to Madras in 1919, he continued calculating equations of breathtaking beauty on his sickbed in Chetpet, creating his famous 'lost notebook' containing the theory of mock theta functions that physicists today apply to the study of black holes and quantum mechanics.
His birthday, December 22, is celebrated annually across India as National Mathematics Day in honour of his Madras legacy.
In 1913, his correspondence with Professor G. H. Hardy at the University of Cambridge led to his travel to England, where their extraordinary collaboration produced breakthroughs in partition functions, highly composite numbers, and modular forms. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the young age of 30.
Returning to Madras in 1919, he continued calculating equations of breathtaking beauty on his sickbed in Chetpet, creating his famous 'lost notebook' containing the theory of mock theta functions that physicists today apply to the study of black holes and quantum mechanics.
His birthday, December 22, is celebrated annually across India as National Mathematics Day in honour of his Madras legacy.
Key Milestones
- Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) (1918)
- Formulated nearly 3,900 mathematical identities and equations
- Discovered the Hardy-Ramanujan number 1729 and mock theta functions
Honors & Awards
- Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
- Fellow of the Royal Society
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