#1: A Story for Everything with Prof. Varadharajan Muruganandam NiSERCast

Our guest in this first episode of NiSERCast is Prof. Varadharajan Muruganandam, from the School of Mathematical Sciences at NISER. In this episode, we discuss his long journey in academia — his PhD days at IIT Kanpur, teaching at Pondicherry University, his experiences teaching in France, and setting up institutes like NISER. We also touch upon the impact of computers on academia and, in particular, research in mathematics.
Listen in to hear about his meandering journey as an Indian academic!
Episode Notes:Ravi Shankar and Carnatic music
Madurai Kamaraj University
Marshall Stone and Stone–Weierstrass theorem
Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur
UB Tewari
Henry Helson
Mathematical Reviews
Harmonic analysis
Harish-Chandra
VS Varadarajan
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)
Madras Presidency College
Weierstrass p-functions
Kronecker’s theorem
Stirling’s formula
Four color theorem
Harmonic series
Leonhard Euler
Georg Cantor
Moore machine, Punch cards and Intel processors (286, 386, and Pentium)
\(\LaTeX\)
David Hilbert
Felix Klein
University of Poitiers
Pierre Deligne
Nicholas Varopoulos
PV Narasimha Rao
Hyderabad University, Pondicherry University, Benaras Hindu University
S Kumaresan, VS Sunder, and Mathematics Training and Talent Search Programme
René Descartes and Cartesian coordinates
GH Hardy
George Mallory, Tenzing Norgay, and Edmund Hillary
Jordan curve theorem
Thiruvalluvar